YOUNG Oyster Indoor Bowling Club member Stephanie Crates made history when she helped Kent Ladies overcome Cambridgeshire 140-71 to lift the Atherley Trophy, the top national indoor competition for women.

Having turned 17 just five days before the final at Oxford City IBC, Crates, from Herne Bay, is the youngest player to have represented the county in the competition.

A pupil at Canterbury’s Barton Court School, she took up bowling at the age of 10, and plays outdoors in the summer for Herne Bay.

The outcome at Oxford was in little doubt from early on with Cambridge lacking the firepower needed to unseat a close-knit and confident side.

Kent, the defending champions, won on five of the six rinks with one drawn and county president Jan Pilcher, a Royal Tunbridge Wells indoor member, hailed the triumph as the high spot of her year in office.

The rink scores, with Kent skips’ names first, were Joan Hills 25 Sue Ritchie 6; Sandy Hazell 30 Lynda Jarman 9; Wendy King 17 Val Newson 17; Doreen Easterby 24 Pat Reynolds 17; Linda Southby 17 Doreen Miller 14; Sheila Huggett 27 Doreen Smith 8.