NORTH Yorkshire's most-travelled and talented amateur women's golfer is to focus on the Brit parade.

Emma Duggleby this week decided to quit international team golf at which she has excelled for more than a decade at the highest level.

A star of no less than three Curtis Cup collisions against deadly arch-adversaries from America, plus three Vagliano Trophy tussles against the best of Europe, the Malton and Norton Golf Club player has also featured in ten Home Internationals team tournaments for England against the pride of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

However, she has now opted to end her international commitments even though they have yielded some of her best playing memories.

"It's just that I felt I have been doing it for so long that it was time now to take my leave from international team play," explained Duggleby after informing selectors that she would not be attending the winter training camps for the British and European team for next September's Curtis Cup assignment in Oregon.

"It is a long of time to give to it. If you go to the training camps then that takes two weeks away from your tournament play at home during the season."

She added: "I am going to miss team golf a lot. I have really enjoyed it and, in a way, it's more enjoyable than playing by yourself in a tournament.

"If you're having a bad time then it's great to have team members rooting for you and giving you their support. You don't get that when you're out there on your own as an individual."

Duggleby cited the Curtis Cup clash against the Americans in her North Yorkshire back-yard of Ganton Golf Club in the year 2000 as her biggest international highlight.

"We never won. In fact, the team lost all the three Curtis Cup matches I played in, but I performed particularly well at Ganton and it was great to experience a 'home' crowd cheering you on all the way."

Great Britain and Ireland's capture of the Vagliano Trophy just under three years ago in Ireland was another treasured haul in the Duggleby memory bank.

But while her competitive horizons may have narrowed, she believed the decision to finish her days of team play will give extra swing and spring to her bid to continue to dazzle on the domestic circuit in which she has twice been crowned British and also English amateur women's champion since 1994.

Said Duggleby: "I've had a really good winter, so I'm looking forward to the new season. It starts in April with two 36-hole events before going to Troon for the Scottish Open which I won two years ago."

Updated: 10:02 Saturday, February 11, 2006