Holcombe Brook ladies proved themselves the top team in the country when they stormed to victory in the Aegon National Team Championships.

The Bury team lifted the title for the fourth time in 19 years, making up for the disappointment of losing in the semi-finals in the last two summers.

It is an achievement in itself just getting to the finals which feature the eight teams which top the various groups from around the country.

Around 200 teams were involved at the start of the campaign, and Holcombe Brook battled it out with seven elite rivals in the finals in Bournemouth last week when they were the dominant force, winning the quarter-finals 4-0, the semi-finals 4-1, and the final 4-0.

Delighted team manager Tony Lawson said: “We’re very proud. It means our ladies team are the best in the country. The competition is the pinnacle of team tennis in the country. If I can compare it to football, it is the Premier League of team tennis and includes the top 20 British ladies players.

“It’s a fantastic achievement. The clubs we were playing were massive clubs with great facilities and we’re just a small club with a wooden hut and six courts.

“People should be pleased we are doing it for the area and for the north.

“We won it in 1993, 2001, 2008 and again this year. We got knocked out in the semi-finals last year and the year before.”

Lawson was full of praise for his squad, which has welcomed some new faces, and has challenged them to repeat their success.

He said: “We have had to rebuild the team a little bit and I knew we had a good squad this year. Now we’d like to go back next year and win it again.”

The ladies secured the win in spectacular style, as the team, seeded one, breezed past tough opposition in both the quarter and semi-finals, losing only one individual singles match.

That set up a crunch final match with number two seeds and defending champions, David Lloyd Raynes Park from Hatfield.

And Holcombe’s preparations started badly when Lawson was forced to drop number four singles player, Amy Askew, for disciplinary reasons.

She was replaced by Sarah Gregg who, on court first, got her team off to a great start, keeping her concentration in a rain-interrupted match to secure a superb 6-1, 6-4 victory.

Victories for Danielle Hock and impressive newcomers, Yasmin Clarke and Samantha Murray, secured a surprisingly easy win in the final for the top seeds.

Holcombe’s men’s team, who had also qualified for the Bournemouth finals, were not able to repeat the ladies success.

With the disadvantage of having only the minimum four players, they failed to get through the quarter-final stage when they lost to eventual runners-up, Bromley, who had finished as champions for the previous two years.