12:12pm Saturday 24th February 2007
By Dave Flett
BECOMING a champion in two different sports is about as rare as a decent performance from England's football team these days.
But Jill Rounce has doubled up to become York's top female table tennis and tennis player in recent years.
The Howden-based psychiatric nurse has just racked up her seventh successive York and District table tennis title and is yet to drop a game in that competition since joining the league during the 1999/2000 season, playing for Nestlé Rowntree briefly before moving to current club York RI.
Jill, 36, also emerged victorious from the York Municipals Tennis Championships in 2004 and 2005 and, with the competition not being held last year, is yet to surrender that title.
Along with Fulford team-mate Jill McCreedy, she also won the 2005 ladies' doubles championship having originally started out playing for Bubwith when she first moved from Hull in 1999.
Stockport-born Jill, who is the only female player in the York and District League's first division, won her latest table tennis crown having finished top of a six-strong round-robin league and beating Jean Carter in the final.
During her long reign as champion, Jill has also added six ladies' doubles and six mixed doubles titles to her singles honours.
The former Humberside, Hull and Cheshire champion plays twice and trains once a week at RI's Queen Street venue and comes from fine table tennis stock.
Jill's parents, Derek and Doreen Schofield, were both international players and number one veterans in England.
Both still jet across the globe to compete in international events and Derek, now 77, has won world gold medals in over-60s events.
Jill rates beating her mother Doreen in the final of the 2003 Cheshire singles' championship as her best-ever tournament win.
Other achievements have included junior and senior county honours for Cheshire and she was called up to represent her adopted home Yorkshire in 2005.
She has also played in the Women's British League and reached a ranking between 50 and 100 although travel, accommodation and competition entry costs contributed to her not being able to make a greater impact on the national scene.
She says: "I could not play in all the Grand Prix events to boost my points but, even though I could have probably got into the top 50, I don't think I would have got much higher."
As a teenager, Jill's tennis talents brought her victories at a clutch of LTA events including the Hoole and Colwyn Bay Opens.
Her biggest sporting disappointment is missing out on a county call-up despite reaching junior standard.
"I was never chosen due to my unorthodox double-handed style of play," she said.
But her sporting double has gone some way to easing that pain, she added.
"Tennis is such a big sport so to be the champion at both is great."
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