Saltford Golf Club's Amanda Mayne suffered last-day heartache as she was pipped to the English senior women's stroke play title by just one stroke at Knaresborough in Yorkshire.
Having led by two shots at the end of the first day, Mayne went into Thursday's third and final round level pegging with Cheshire's Cath Rawthore.
And it was the Sale player who went on to take the spoils by one shot, despite Mayne's valiant fightback from four adrift in the closing stages.
The drama of the final round began immediately, with Mayne scoring a triple bogey on the first after tangling with trees.
She came straight back into the reckoning with birdies on the second and third holes but Rawthore never relinquished the lead and, having reached the turn in level par, had a cushion of three shots.
That was extended to four after Mayne three-putted the 11th but once again the Saltford player refused to accept defeat, birdieing the 13th after hitting her approach to within two foot of the hole.
She pulled another shot back when Rawthore under-clubbed into the 14th on the way to a bogey, then birdied the tricky 15th to narrow the gap to just one shot.
Rawthore, who repeatedly demonstrated a devastating short game despite playing with a badly bruised thumb, chipped dead on the par four 16th for a par and again moved two clear.
But her lead was once more narrowed to one shot when Mayne birdied the long 17th, having knocked her approach to within 3ft of the pin.
Rawthore then bogeyed the 54th and final hole of the week – but so did Mayne as the title eluded her.
Three shots further back in joint third place were Caroline Berry of Cheshire – who shot the low score of the day with a one-under 74 – and Norfolk's Jo Ashmore.
New senior Tracy Bazell of Dorset was fifth and Surrey's Debbie Richards took sixth place.
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