THE captain of the county's ladies team has won the National Police Sport UK tennis championships for the first time.
Jayne Allsopp has been a police officer for the past 11 years and competed in the annual tournament since 2003. For the past eight years, she has been a detective constable and is on the robbery squad, based at St Mary's Wharf police station, in Derby.
She also leads Derbyshire's women at the annual AEGON Summer and Winter County Cups, held in different venues across the country each year.
Earlier this year, the 29-year-old – along with colleagues Detective Sergeant Matthew Williamson, retired officer Peter Edney, PCSO Emma Guest, SOCO officer Alice Stewart and Special Constable Filip Feret – competed at the regional Police Sport UK event, at Leicestershire.
Edney and Williamson lost in the finals of the veterans doubles and men's doubles, while Stewart and Guest just missed out on taking the title for the ladies doubles but qualified for the ladies veterans event. Allsopp and Feret, however, both qualified in the singles events and won the final of the mixed doubles. This meant they were invited to the national championships in Huddersfield, where Allsopp – seeded number two – won her opening singles matches to face number one seed Anna Johnson in the final.
Allsopp took the title with a 6-2, 7-5 win, despite Johnson having a higher LTA ranking, after coming back from 5-4 down in the second set. She then paired up with Feret for the mixed doubles and the duo reached the final but lost 7-5, 4-6, 12-10.
Allsopp, who has been invited along with Feret to the Police Sport UK national training weekend in La Manga, Spain, next April, said: "I'm delighted with how this year has gone, after a difficult year in 2011. I'm really looking forward to next year, with this competition, the training weekend and the AEGON Winter County Cup as well."