Emma Duggleby fell at the final hurdle for the second successive year in the British Women's Open Amateur Golf Championship.

The Malton and Norton club player, beaten by Rebecca Hudson in last year's final, lost 4 and 3 to Marta Prieto in Saturday's final at Ladybank, Fife.

Prieto, a 22-year-old from Seville, made history by becoming the first Spaniard to win the title.

Second seed Duggleby, who also lost in the final of the English Championship three weeks ago, was a firm favourite against Prieto, who was 16th of the 64 match-play qualifiers.

She was one up after the first four holes but missed 4ft putts on the fifth and sixth greens to leave Prieto one ahead at the sixth - the first time in the 24 holes since the start of her semi-final that Duggleby had been behind.

The Spaniard continued to hold the advantage as Duggleby struggled with her driving on the tree-lined Ladybank course.

Duggleby was three down with five to play and it was all over at the 15th which Marta won with a par four for a 4 and 3 victory in one under par figures. Duggleby was two over par for the holes played.

Duggleby reached the final after beating Australian Nadina Taylor in the semis.

The 29-year-old Malton player had been four up with five to play but lost four holes in a row and only struggled through at the 21st with five-over-par figures.

In contrast, Prieto had been roughly level par in beating 16-year-old compatriot, Carmen Alonso from Barcelona, by 3 and 1.

York professional Kirsty Taylor finished on 298, 25 shots behind champion Racel Teske of Australia in the £1.3million Evian masters tournament at Evia-les-Bains, France. Teske won £225,000.

Taylor had begun well with a par 72 but followed with rounds of 73, 76 and 77 to finish well down the field.

Britain's Laura Davies closed with an eight-under-par 64, the best round of the tournament, to shoot up the leaderboard to 11th place.

Updated: 09:35 Monday, June 18, 2001