Breanne Loucks, the only GB&I player with Curtis Cup team experience, in action (picture by Tom Ward).

Spotlight on the "other half"
of GB&I Curtis Cup team

Yesterday, we put the Curtis Cup spotlight on the four Scots in skipper Mary McKenna's team of eight for the match against the Americans at the end of May.
Today, we focus on the three English players - Liz Bennett (Brokenhurst Manor), Florentyna Parker (Royal Birkdale) and Jodi Ewart (Catterick) - and one Welsh player, Breanne Loucks from Wrexham who complete the home line-up.
Florentyna Parker, 18, clinched her place when she was the halfway leader and then finished runner-up to the Spanish ace and British open amateur champion Carlota Ciganda in the Portuguese open amateur championship in February. The Royal Birkdale player, who could have had her pick of American university golf scholarships, instead left school last year to concentrate on golf generally and, specifically, a place in the Curtis Cup team for the Old Course, St Andrews.
Miss Parker lives in Germany where her father Tim is a golf club professional at Gut Walhhof Golf Club, near Hamburg.
Like Sally Watson, Florentyna was a member of the winning European Junior Solheim Cup team in Sweden last year - so she knows what it takes to beat a United States team - and she was also in the Junior Solheim Cup team in 2005.
Liz Bennett, 25, did not make her mark as a title-winning teenager but she was highly-rated enough to earn a golf scholarship to a United States college (Iowa University) and played four years on the women's circuit over there, being named as one of the leading players in her university's conference.
After graduating with a degree in economics in the States in May 2005, Liz really arrived "on the stage" when she won the English women's stroke-play title in 2006 and early in 2007 won the Hampshire county title and the ELGA South-east divison championship.
She made her GB&I debut in the Vagliano Trophy match against the Continent at St Andrews Bay last year when she reached the quarter-finals of the "British" at Alwoodley, Leeds.
The clincher, if it were needed, was Liz's form in January this year on the Orange Blossom Tour in Florida where she won the "Sally" (South Atlantic Ladies Amateur championship) and reached the semi-fnal of the Jone/Doherty match-play championship the following week.
Jodi Ewart, 20, from Catterick was not selected for the 2007 Vagliano Trophy match - which, with hindsight, was perhaps a blessing in disguise for her. The Continentals won by a record margin of 15-9 and several members of the GB&I team that day have not been selected for the Curtis Cup match.
Normally, a nine-strong Vagliano Trophy team forms the backbone for the following year's Curtis Cup team selection.
Jodi Ewart, 20,won the 2007 English (closed) stroke-play title and had a great freshman year on the American women's college circuit as a student at the University of New Mexico. During the 2006-07 season, she had six top 10 finishes in the States, including a victory in the Mountain West Conference championship. She has continued in fine form in America and, prior to the winter break, was ranked in the top 20 nationwide.
Breanne Loucks, 20, from Wrexham is the only member of the 2008 GB&I Curtis Cup team who knows what it feels like to play in the Curtis Cup. She had a 100 per cent winning record through her three appearances in the Bandon Dunes, Oregon match of 2006.
She did play in the Vagliano Trophy match last year at St Andrews Bay and was Welsh women's (close) champion in 2007.
She finished joint fourth behind Ciganda, Flo Parker and Michele Thomson in this year's Portuguese women's open amateur championship.