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Ratcliffe, who hails from Sandbach in Cheshire, enjoyed a distinguished amateur career as a player and won the Finnish Amateur Championship in 1997 and the English Amateur Championship the following year. She was a member of the GB and I team which defeated the United States 11½- 6½ in the 1996 Curtis Cup at Killarney and played for GB and I in the 1997 Vagliano Trophy match against the Continent of Europe, who won 12½-11½ at Royal Aberdeen.
Ratcliffe also represented GB&I as a player in the Espirito Santo Trophy and England in the European Amateur Team Championships.
After turning professional, she was named Rookie of the Year by the Ladies’ European Tour in 1999 but was reinstated as an amateur in 2008.
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