GOLF: Alex Boatman emulated the feat of Jo Hockley in 1996 by completing the Suffolk Ladies Strokeplay and Matchplay double at Thorpeness last week.The daughter of former England president Liz, she had taken the Strokeplay title by three shots and added the Matchplay crown with a one-hole success against Jo's sister, Amanda.

ALEX Boatman emulated the feat of Jo Hockley in 1996 by completing the Suffolk Ladies Strokeplay and Matchplay double at Thorpeness last week.

The daughter of former England president Liz, she had taken the Strokeplay title by three shots and added the Matchplay crown with a one-hole success against Jo's sister, Amanda.

In the process Boatman also successfully defended her Matchplay title to equal the feat of Julie Wade who won this championship in successive years.

Thorpeness provided a tough test of golf for the ladies, but Boatman's second round score of level par 74 – the best of the day – to add to her morning round of 78 for a 152 total was three shots better than her closest rival, Amanda Hockley.

The Suffolk Ladies Championship, that is sponsored by ReadytoBook.com, also saw a hole-in-one from Ipswich's Sheila Laws at the par three 145-yard tenth hold.

Boatman was the only player to come in with a level par round, but she was the first to admit that was due to good putting and to a degree some scrambling.

The top 16 of the Strokeplay qualified for the Matchplay, and among those were the Felixstowe quartet of Sharon Luckman, Katy Snelgrove, Yvonne Hollis and Zoe Proctor with runner-up Amanda Hockley making it a nap hand from the seaside club.

Both the Ipswich players who qualified, Sheila Laws and Vicki Hunt, were unavailable to take part in the Matchplay Championship that was played over the following two days.

They say that cream rises to the top, and the three leading players from the Strokeplay Championship contested the semi-finals of the Matchplay Championship along with Lils James (Rookery Park) who had finished fifth in the 36-hole event. Both semi-finals were decided by a decisive margin with Boatman overcoming Lils James 5 and 3 and Hockley winning 4 and 3 against Steadman.

The final was a closely-contested affair. Boatman was never behind throughout, but had Hockley's putt dropped on the final hole she would have taken the match to extra time. Boatman hung on to win by just one hole.

The Jean Berendt Trophy for the best nett score of the Strokeplay Championship went to Lils James with Katy Snelgrove the runner-up.

At the end of the Matchplay Championship, the Suffolk Ladies captain Widge Sinclair announced the players to travel to South Beds Golf Club for the County Championship matches on May 27, 28 and 29.

Suffolk ladies County Championship team: Sue Birrell (Flempton), Alex Boatman (Royal Worlington), Amanda Hockley (Felixstowe), Lils James (Rookery Park), Emma Jukes (Stowmarket), Sharon Luckman (Felixstowe), Hannah Rees (Rookery Park), Liz Steadman (Stowmarket). Yvonne Hollis (Felixstowe) is the non-travelling reserve.