PROMISING badminton players from the district again helped the county to national success.

Northumberland U14, featuring Hexham’s Charlotte Graham and Ponteland’s James and Lucy Dodd, and Jack Tilbury, claimed third place in the weekend’s Anglo-Scottish tournament.

Three wins and two defeats saw them challenging for top honours, before they settled for third spot.

They recorded a 6-4 victory against Isle of Man with doubles victories for Charlotte Graham and Katrina Ho, and Lucy Dodd and Ellen Davison. Charlotte then teamed up with fellow number one James Dodd to win their mized doubles, with Lucy winning her singles and Jack Tilbury and Hugh Twelves securing the victory.

Northumberland built on the momentum and followed it up with a convincing 8-2 win over Lothian B with wins in the girls’ and boys’ doubles and boys’ singles, with a 7-3 victory in the final match against Borders securing third.

There were wins in the mixed and girls’ doubles and boys’ singles, while Charlotte and James both fought back to secure victory after trailing at the change of ends at 11 points.

Northumberland weren’t able to make it a clean sweep as they went down to Yorkshire and Lothian A, but they caused problems to their opponents in both games and took two wins in the match against Yorkshire.

Team manager Karen Davison said: “This young and inexperienced team have come so far in such a short space of time. In every match, they bring a little more determination and show more confidence, and this was a fantastic result for them and for Northumberland.

“Once again, this young team demonstrated excellent progress as they competed in every match and played with confidence.

“Many members of this squad will still be eligible to play U14 badminton next year, so to be achieving this much at such a young age is very impressive.”