Debbie has been playing croquet since she was six years old, when she started playing at home with her father Don and brother Stephen. Every year the family would go on holiday to a hotel in Cromer and play an American rules tournament that was taken very seriously. Then, in 1985, the family entered the Hunstanton week and discovered the delights of Association Croquet.
Debbie developed her skills over the next 10 years - winning the Ladies Field Cup in 1986, completing her first triple peel in 1987 and in 1988 she won the Spencer Ell and the British Women’s Championship. She went on to play in the Chairman’s Salver and President’s Cup, the Solomon Trophy, came second at the Sonoma Cutrer World Championships and has also twice been USCA American rules doubles champion. Her best year was 1995 when she was a Quarter Finalist in the 1995 World Championship in France, lost to Reg Bamford in the semi-final of the British Opens and beat David Maugham to win the North of England Championship. These achievements were enough for her to be selected to represent Great Britain in the team that won the 1996 MacRobertson Shield, where she won 11 of her 15 matches, demonstrating conclusively that women could compete at the highest level.
Following the 1996 victory in the MacRobertson Shield, Debbie focussed more on her career and other interests for the next decade, before making a comeback in 2008. Since then she has won a number of events, most notably the 2024 Women’s AC World Championship, the Bowl at the 2024 AC World Championship and the 2025 British Mixed Open Doubles. Debbie continues to play at the highest level – regularly winning tournaments and being selected to play in the President’s Cup in 2023, 2024 and 2025. She is also one of only four women to have ever completed a tournament sextuple peel. Debbie has recently returned to the Great Britain team, captaining the GB Solomon Trophy team in 2024, and playing again for the winning GB team in the 2025 Solomon.
In addition to playing Association Croquet all over the world, Debbie is an accomplished Golf Croquet player, reaching the last 16 of the 2023 Women’s GC World Championship, and she is currently ranked as the number 3 woman in England.
Debbie has been playing croquet at a high level for forty years, and was hugely influential in being the first woman in the modern era to show that women could compete at the highest level, reaching a world ranking of 6 in 1995. Debbie was also clearly the number one ranked woman in the world for 16 years from 1989 to 2004, and is still ranked as the number two woman in 2025, as well as being the current Women’s AC World Champion.
From 2021 to 2025, Debbie took on the role of WCF Secretary General in a time of many international challenges, and has guided the organisation expertly with her knowledge and experience. This has included helping to organise multiple world championships, bringing the European Croquet Federation into the WCF as the European Regional Committee, developing several new WCF policies, being responsible for writing and updating numerous regulations and statutes, and leading on major initiatives such as incorporation of the WCF, ranking system amendments and development and running of the WCF website and social media. Debbie is also Secretary for the Peterborough Croquet Club and serves on the Croquet England Sport Development Committee helping to promote and develop the sport at all levels.
Having been a senior manager with Interflora, Debbie semi-retired in 2019 in order to give more time to the sport that she loves. Debbie is now living in Lincolnshire with husband Ian Lines, with whom she enjoys fell walking, travel and the occasional game of croquet.
Whether it be playing, managing tournaments, refereeing, coaching, administering or promoting the sport, Debbie has performed her role admirably, been a popular presence wherever she has travelled and has helped the global progress of the sport. Debbie has been at the forefront of world croquet for forty years and will always be known as the first woman of the modern era who showed that women could compete at the very top level.