James Rule, of Ryedale School, stormed into the English Schools Table Tennis Year 10 National Finals after success at the North Yorkshire qualification event at St John Fisher School in Harrogate.

Players from all over the county contested the event, with the winner having the honour of representing their school and the region at the national finals in Doncaster in April.

There were four groups of four under-16s players, with the top two boys from each group progressing to the quarter-finals.

Rule won his group without dropping a set.

In the quarter-finals, he beat Ethan Lowe of Lady Lumley’s School, Pickering. The first set was tight as Lowe pushed him all the way but finally the Ryedale youngster won 11-8 and took the next two sets 11-4 and 11-6.

In the semi-final, Rule beat Adam Waddingham of Harrogate, putting on a fantastic performance to win 11-2 11-4 11-5. This set up a final against Rule’s Yorkshire county colleague Tom Bouchard, of St John Fisher School.

Rule won the first set 11-5 but Bouchard levelled, winning the next set 11-8.

That was the first set Rule had dropped all day but it did not unnerve him as he dominated the rest of the match with some fantastic forehand top-spin helping him to take the next two sets 11-4 11-5 for a 3-1 triumph.