Scotland's Sinead and John Kerr survived a series of judging controversies to glide to their fifth consecutive British skating title in Sheffield on Saturday - but awoke yesterday to discover that vandals had smashed the windows of both theirs' and their parents' cars.

It all added up to a frustrating few days for the Scots, whose final tally of 169.26 points was nearly 20 better than the second-placed couple, Philippa Towler-Green and Philip Poole.

It could have been significantly better but for Sinead being penalised for wearing too much make-up in one routine and the couple suffering further deductions for supposedly repeating an element in their free dance programme.

"Some of the marking seemed rather pedantic, which led to us having a long chat with the judges afterwards, because these minor things could have cost us as much as 10 points in total," said John yesterday.

"We're just glad that these things happened here and not at the European Cham-pionships in Zagreb next week. We could have done without the damage to our cars, which has meant us all having to hang around for hours in Sheffield, but you learn to cope with these problems."

Kerr was quick to praise the performance of Glasgow's Mark Hanretty, who marked his senior debut by finishing third with his teenage American partner, Christina Chitwood. "They have a lot of potential. Mark and Christina represent the future and I've no doubt they can become a force in the years ahead."

  • Result 1 Sinead Kerr/John Kerr 169.26, 2 Philippa Towler-Green/Philip Poole 150.74, 3 Christina Chitwood/Mark Hanretty 145.13.