The northern finals of the English Schools’ Table Tennis Association Championships took place in Blackburn.

St Bernard’s under-13s girls were third in England last year and hopeful of making the national finals again.

Their opening match against De Ferrers Technical College, from Burton-on-Trent, was won by a quite comfortable margin of 6-2.

However, the second match, in effect the final, was against north east champions, Northfield School, from Billingham, and was far from easy.

Robyn Holden found it hard against the top-ranking players and it was a rearguard action that brought their wins.

It looked as though St Bernard’s were going out when Emily Cotton was 2-0 down, but she fought back to gain the win.

There were further wins from Louise Keneally and, vitally, from Katie Linton that earned a draw.

The games count-back was level and the girls faced an agonising wait while the points totals were confirmed, giving St Bernard’s victory by just seven points and a place in the national finals.

Keneally was the player on top form, winning all four matches. Linton won three, Cotton two and Holden won once.

It was a great team effort and one where every point won had a bearing on the match.

Encouraged by the girls’ performance, St Bernard’s under-13s boys started their quest for a first national finals place with a resounding 8-0 win against Graham School, from Scarborough.

This put them through to the final against De Ferrers Technical College.

Again St Bernard’s showed invaluable strength-in-depth.

Top players James Coward and Brendan Trainor were both beaten by the opposition number one, but then everything went the way of St Bernard’s in a 6-2 win.

Both Anton Vacca and Ross Ahern won all their matches, with Coward and Trainor winning three from four.

St Columba’s under-11s girls played very well in the group stage with a 6-2 win against Dronfield, from Derbyshire and a 5-3 win against St Peter’s, from Nottinghamshire.

Mia Gwynne and Tyra Rushton were impressive, winning all their matches. Sophie Ridgway won twice and Jenny Williams won once.

Williams also went to five games in two other matches, a great performance by a player still only in Year 4, two years younger than her team-mates.

The final looked a harder proposition, and so it proved against Village school, from Thornaby-on-Tees.

Their number one, Megan Eden, was a very strong player for this age group.

Nevertheless, Gwynne had the opposition coach and the player herself worried. Her containing and counter-attack ploy almost caused an upset, with the match going to five games and only won at 11-9 in the decider.

Gwynne defeated the number two, while Sophie Ridgway won in straight sets for a 2-1 lead.

Despite Jenny Williams taking games in both her matches, the only other result to go the Walney school’s way was Tyra Rushton’s four-game win against Kristen Brown.

The St Columba’s girls should be proud of getting so close to the national finals.

At the parallel regional event held at Grantham, St Bernard’s under-16s girls were making it a hat-trick of national finalists.

They achieved this with two 5-3 victories.

Despite not playing league or national tournaments this year, hard-hitting number one Anna Donohue led the way, unbeaten in all four matches.

Shannon Trainor, Emily Edwards and Adele Bassett all won two matches.

Two other Cumbria teams played at Grantham, Askam under-11s boys and Dowdales under-13s boys.

Both teams achieved good individual performances, but were unable to make progress through the group stages.