CANTERBURY Hockey Club’s ladies have been hailed as ‘fantastic’ after qualifying for Europe for the first time.

Monday’s 2-1 Premiership final defeat against Slough meant they missed out on a place in the European Club Championship, but they will compete in the European Cup Winners’ Cup next Easter.

It is the first time any Canterbury team will have played in Europe and caps an outstanding season for the ladies who were national indoor runners-up, and HA Cup winners, for the first time.

Ladies’ chairman Sally Hayes has been involved with the club since 1976 and admits playing in Europe was not even an option in the early days.

She said: “I think as a club we recognised in the mid 80s that we could do something.

“We started off wanting to be the best in Kent and then in the East. Then we got into the National League and at the start of last season we gave ourselves five years to get into Europe. To do it after only two is a fantastic achievement.”

Captain Mel Clewlow admitted it had been an superb season, but she was disappointed they had not been able to sign off with another win.

Clewlow, 27 on Wednesday, said: “I don’t think the girls can believe what we’ve achieved. At Christmas we were fifth or sixth in the league and not expected to get anything but in the second half of the season we’ve probably been the best team.

“We were disappointed to lose to Slough because we wanted to go into the summer on a high.”

Coach Danny Kerry has already said he is happy to stay on next season. The one blot on the horizon is that Canterbury’s international players could be prevented from playing any domestic hockey in 2004, which is an Olympic year.

Skipper Clewlow, Anna Bennett and Frances Houslop are all likely to be involved with Great Britain while Jen Wilson and Susan Webber are expected to be in the South African squad.