LANCASHIRE Ladies are on course to wrestle back their national county title after being crowned northern champions at St Annes Old Links.

The Red Rose booked their place at the 2011 English County Finals, to be held at Thorndon Park, Essex, in September, after enjoying a 100 per cent record in their regional match week.

They beat all five counties with the decisive victory coming against old rivals Yorkshire, who were English county champions for five years from 2004 to 2008.

Five members of the county’s winning team are from East Lancashire – Pleasington trio Nikki Foster, Catherine Roberts and Brogan Townend, Wilpshire's Elizabeth Stebbings and Emily Taylor, who plays at Royal Lytham and St Annes but lives in Chorley.

Several members were part of the squad that helped Lancashire become 2009 national champions at Pleasington, and now ladies captain Joy Bury is hoping they can bring the title back again this year.

She said: “I am thrilled and delighted that our team won the Northern Counties’ Match Week.

“My thanks go to the players for their dedication over the past few months and their coaches. We can now look forward to going down to Thorndon Park to compete in the EWGA County Finals.

“You can be assured that we will be making every effort to bring the trophy back to the north of England.”

Lancashire got their regional match week off to a flying start at St Annes, crushing Cumbria 7.5-1.5, before going on to defeat Northumberland 6-3, Cheshire 6.5-2.5, and Durham 8-1.

Yorkshire had also won their first four matches ahead of a winner-takes-all War of the Roses clash.

But the honours went to Lancashire, who secured their nationals spot with a 5.5-3.5 victory.

Roberts sunk the team’s match-winning putt in her singles tussle, clinching a one-up success over Yorkshire’s Sara Garbutt despite being two down during her outward nine.

Stebbings, who turned in an excellent performance in her first county match week, had earlier put Lancashire in a fantastic position with a 5&3 win over Ellie Robinson.