JANET MELVILLE IMPRESSIVE WINNER OF ENGLISH SENIOR WOMEN'S STROKE-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

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Nottinghamshire’s Janet Melville birdied her way to an impressive three-shot victory in the English senior women’s stroke play championship at Shifnal, Shropshire.  
She saved her best golf of the week to the last, returning the low score of the tournament with her final round of level par 72 – and playing the back nine in three-under. Janet’s superb homeward half  leapfrogged her over the 36-hole leader, Sue Dye of Cheshire, and secured her the trophy for the second time.  She finished three ahead of Sue and six clear of third-placed Lindsey Shaw of Derbyshire. She adds the title to her impressive collection, which includes three British ladies’ championships: the open, the strokeplay and the matchplay.
Janet, who previously won this title in 2008, said: “This one is very special. The steward and stewardess at Shifnal, Nick and Ann Peters, are both good friends and I came here for a practice round with their son, Ed, which was very helpful.” 
Janet and Ann Peters first met when they were fellow competitors in an English girls’ championship.
At the start of today’s third and final round – played mostly in a persistent drizzle -  Sue Dye held a two shot lead over both Janet and Lindsey.
Janet’s golf has been in good shape all season – she won the Midlands seniors’ championship a couple of weeks ago with a sub-par score – but, by her own account, she started nervily as she set about catching Sue. 
However, by the turn, Janet was just one shot behind and she caught her rival on the 11th, where her approach to the green finished within 3ft of the hole to set up her first birdie of the day.
The two, who were playing together in the final group, stayed on level terms over the next three holes. Janet broke the deadlock on the 15th with another birdie: “I was lucky, because I hit a tree with my tee shot but it came out and then I hit a really, really good shot into the green and holed the putt.”
A solid par four on the difficult, uphill 16th moved her further ahead, when Sue bogeyed the hole after catching a tree on her second shot.
Janet extended her lead to three shots with another birdie on the challenging par three 17th. Both players hit fine shots into the lower level of the green, where the pin was situated, but it was Janet’s ball which dropped into the cup for two. “I was just trying to get it close so it was a bonus!”
She sealed the title with a par on the last, with a very good up-and-down from a greenside bunker.
Sue, meanwhile, was not disappointed with her first English senior outing of the year. The former champion said: “I missed three birdie chances, all from inside 10ft, but Janet just played so well.”
Sue, from Delamere Forest, paired up with Gillian Mellor of Prestbury, to win the county team trophy for Cheshire. Gill Snelson of Branston, Staffordshire, won the over-65 trophy. 
+Picture of Janet Melville with the trophy reproduced by kind permission of England Golf.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3X72) CSS 74 74 76
224 Janet Melville (Sherwood Forest) 76 76 72
227 Sue Dye (Delamere Forest) 76 74 77
230 Lindsey Shaw (Chevin) 78 74 78
235 Amanda Mayne (Saltford) 74 80 81
236 Barbara Laird (Sandiway)  81 77 78, Christine Watson (Beaconsfield) 82 75 79, Katherine Russell (Royal Ashdown Forest), 78 78 80
237 Lulu Housman (Highgate) 83 75 79, Jackie Barraclough (East Bierley) 77 77 83 0 238 Felicity Christine (Woking Ladies') 77 81 80, Carolyn Kirk (Ganton) 76 81 81
239 Jo Rumsey (Rochford Hundred) 82 77 80, Gillian Mellor (Prestbury) 79 76 84
240 Barbara Woodham (Cobtree Manor Park) 76 81 83
241 Roz Adams (Addington Court Ladies') 77 84 80, Caron Harrison (Sherwood Forest) 74 86 81, Carol Cass (Broadstone) 80 80 81
243 Amanda Ryan (Caldy) 80 81 82, Caroline Berry (Bromborough) 81 79 83, Ruth Lindley (Hartlepool) 77 82 84