Retired firefighter turns European golf champion

Ms Shayler said she and the team burst into tears when they won the championship

A retired firefighter said it was a "huge honour" to be part of the England senior women's team that won the recent European Senior Ladies' Team Championship.

Sally Shayler, from Sharnbrook, started playing golf for Bedfordshire at 29 and won the county championship five times before going on to first represent England in 2023.

On 6 September, she was part of the team who saw off Sweden to win the championship at the Pula golf resort in Spain.

The 54-year-old was a firefighter in Northamptonshire for 31 years, working as a decontamination and hazardous materials instructor.

Ms Shayler said she never intended to be a firefighter and described her career -which "covered everything from a cat in a tree to Novichok" - as "completely accidental".

Sally Shayler worked at Corby Fire Station in Northamptonshire for more than three decades.

When Ms Shayler became a firefighter at Corby Fire Station in 1993 aged 23, she was the only woman on the team.

She retired in 2024 and was the first woman from Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service to complete a full 30-year service and receive her pension.

"Nowadays loads of girls do it, it's a job for everyone - it wasn't back then," she explained.

"I spent an accidental 31 years with a bunch of chaps; I've had jolly good fun along the way and when I look back if I've done some good for the public then brilliant."

Ms Shayler now works part-time at Bedfordshire Golf Club in Stagsden.

Ms Shayler said she was "incredibly nervous" before the competition but said it was a "huge honour" to represent England

The European Senior Ladies' Team Championship is an annual event for women aged over 50 from European Golf Association member countries.

Ms Shayler said putting on an England shirt was the "highest honour" for an amateur golfer and described winning as a "massive moment".

"We all burst into tears, we're pleased as punch!"

As a child Ms Shayler played "tennis and rounders like everyone else" at her school.

She said she started playing golf in her late 20s because it was a hobby she could share with her father.

Ms Shayler will represent England again at the Senior Women's Home Internationals at Ferndown Golf Club in Dorset on Tuesday.

The England Senior Women golf team of six, including Ms Shayler (far left), won the championship in Spain on 6 September