Melbourn Squash Club member Kate Bradshaw wins gold for England at European Masters Championships in Wroclaw, Poland

Kate Bradshaw’s year to remember continued when she took the top prize at the recent European Masters Championships.

Already in 2025, the Melbourn Squash Club member followed up her starring role in England Women’s Over-45s’ successful defence of the Home Internationals Trophy by being crowned the British Open champion for the first time in June.

And Bradshaw has now proven herself on the international stage with a victory in the Women’s Over-45s section at the event in Wroclaw, Poland, last week.

Bradshaw was the top seed for the tournament following her British Open triumph, and she progressed as expected to the semi-finals after a flurry of three matches in two days against opponents from Hungary, France and Poland.

Bradshaw faced another local player – fourth seed Dominika Witkowska – for a place in the final and it was her serve that proved the key shot as it consistently pinned the Polish player deep, allowing the Englishwoman to bring out her serve-drop shot combinations and run out a 3-0 winner.

However, the final against third seed Caroline Grangeon was nowhere near as straightforward as Bradshaw fell two games down and also faced two championship balls.

She survived both of those, only for her French opponent to earn two more. Again she held her nerve, with the second of those at 14-13 being saved via a courageous return of serve cross-court volley drop shot, played inch perfectly, and this seemed to shake Grangeon’s confidence as Bradshaw won the next two points to escape 16-14.

The match turned on its head with this, with Bradshaw always having her nose in front in throughout the fourth and then playing her best aquash of the day to race away with the decider to complete a 10-12, 6-11, 16-14, 11-9, 11-5 victory.

During her on-court post-match interview, Bradshaw said: “It was a heck of a long journey. I honestly didn't think I was going to make that.

“I thought she was playing really accurately, she was putting me in the back corners, doing all the stuff you should do on this court, and I felt a bit down and out to be honest. But then I got a bit of a chink and the serve got better and turned it around.”

Meanwhile, closer to home, Bradshaw’s Melbourn club-mates have been in action.

In the Cambs Summer League, Melbourn snatched the title ahead of Newmarket thanks to a 9-5 victory over St Ivo.

Illness meant the visitors forfeited the third string, leaving Jan Brynjolffssen (1) and Moises Estrelles Navarro (2) both needing to win, which they duly did.