A women's skittles team who play out of South East Cornwall are preparing to defend their British champions title which they have won four times.

Having won the title for an historic fourth time, the EverHopefulls will defend their ladies' title in this year's Butcombe British Skittles Championships.

'We're scared just thinking about it,' said captain Jenny Rendle.

'The pressure is really on us once again. Every time someone high fives us, we almost don't want to think about trying for a fifth title but, of course, we're going for it. How could we not?'

The team stormed into the skittling history books last September as the only team to win four titles in the history of the championships. Previous wins were in 2005, 2010 and 2012. Last year the team had quite a rocky ride to reach the finals, coming second in their initial league stage. But experience of the big moments paid off on the night and they stormed to victory against the Dolly Mixers from Totnes, Devon, for the second year running.

The team play out of Millennium House in Pensilva near Liskeard but play in different teams within the East Cornwall League, coming together for the championships. 'We're taking no chances with the players,' said Jenny. 'It's the same line up as last year.'

More than 150 teams from all over the UK regularly compete in the Butcombe championships which begin with a series of knockout rounds from April to August.

The 64 finalists then converge on Torquay's Riviera International Conference Centre in September to battle it out.