Sarah nurses Varsity ambitions

A BLUNTISHAM student nurse is looking to lead her team to victory on the golf course in the annual Varsity clash with Oxford. Golfer Sarah Meadows, who is in her final year of nursing studies at Homerton College in Cambridge, hopes to repeat last year s s

A BLUNTISHAM student nurse is looking to lead her team to victory on the golf course in the annual Varsity clash with Oxford. Golfer Sarah Meadows, who is in her final year of nursing studies at Homerton College in Cambridge, hopes to repeat last year's success against their fierce rivals.

A win at North Berwick next Tuesday (March 21) would end Sarah's captaincy on a high, after leading Cambridge University Ladies' Golf Club (CULGC) for 12 months.

Mature student Sarah, who first picked up the clubs at Ramsey Golf Club with the encouragement of her partner, is quietly confident about her team's chances against the old adversary.

"We have a strong team but who knows what will happen on the day," said Sarah. "It very much depends on the order of play. As it is a scratch competition and our handicaps are a closely-guarded secret, the teams don't put their best players out first. It's all about strategy and who plays who."

Sarah's team, whose seven members range from teenage undergraduates to mature students in their 40s, has a class act to follow, after Cambridge beat Oxford 8.5 - 0.5 last year at Aldeburgh.

Whatever the outcome, team members will be awarded the prestigious Cambridge 'Blue' for representing the university at top-level sport.

Sarah's rise to ladies' club captain was swift, after taking up the sport again, following a five-year break, when she enrolled at Homerton.

"It was an opportunity too good to miss," said Sarah, who graduates this summer, having completed nursing placements at Hinchingbrooke and Papworth Hospitals. "Golf has been a bonus to my course."

The Varsity match is the culmination of the Cambridge University golf season, which sees the team play at courses including Sunningdale and Rye. CULGC practice at Royal Worlington Golf Club, near Mildenhall. Team members are Sarah Meadows, Elaine Evans (vice-captain), Angela Donoghue, Lisa Heidemanns, Bierte Feix, Jenny Heathcote and Jo Reeve.