THE West Hants Club ladies team, semi-finalists a year ago, will be hoping to go a stage further this week when they take on the best teams in Britain in the finals of the KIA NCL National at home in Bournemouth.

From Friday, a total of 16 clubs will be competing for the men's and women's titles in the three-day KIA National Club League finals, the culmination of the UK's largest singles-based club competition.

The competition got underway in April and involved eight divisions of eight teams playing in a league then play-offs to get the top eight men's and eight ladies' teams.

The teams will be competing to win the £3,000 top prize in the men and the ladies competition. West Hants captain, Karen Adams said: "We lost to the eventual winners, Edgbaston Priory, in the semi-finals in a tie break shoot-out a year ago, so it couldn't have been any closer."

Edgbaston will back this week to defend their title.

The other ladies teams are Holcombe Brook (Lancashire), Halton Village (Bucks), Bath University (Avon), Newlands (Glasgow, Scotland), Hallamshire (Sheffield, Yorkshire) and Northern LTC (Manchester, Lancashire).

The draw will be made on the evening of September 2, by which time West Hants will have put the finishing touches to their preparations.

"This is our main event of the year for our ladies team," said Adams. "We will be practising every night this week and it would be brilliant to win it, but we are being realistic. We will go as far as we can."

The West Hants Club is one of the few teams who entered this year's National Division One with a mainly home-grown squad.

The White sisters, Anna and Jane, have been regular stalwarts in the regional and play-off matches, as has Kate Warne-Holland.

"We've got the strongest team that we can put out," said Adams. "It's pretty much our Dorset county team and the same team as last year, but we have got stronger doubles players in Tamsin Wainwright and Helen Lawson."

NCL tournament director and former Great Britain Davis Cup captain, Paul Hutchins said: "The KIA NCL Finals will involve a mixture of club, county and international players.

"Former Davis Cup players may also be available subject to tournament commitments including Alex Bogdanovic, Miles Maclagan and Jaimie Delgado who all have played in previous league matches for their clubs."