ST AUGUSTINE’S High School’s year eight boys have added the Lancashire sportshall title to their Hyndburn and Ribble Valley success – now they have set their sights on North West glory.

The Billington school’s year eight boys team took the county crown at Hyndurn Leisure Centre where they beat the best of the boroughs from across Lancashire.

But it won’t be the only Saints team competing in the regional finals in Leigh later this month as the school’s year seven girls team also qualified after finishing as runners-up in their county event.

Andy Kelly, lead teacher at St Augustine’s was full of praise for both teams.

He said: “This is a fant-astic achievement for the school and one of which the PE department are extremely proud of. “Each county sends their best two teams to the regionals and to have two St Augustine’s teams representing Lancashire is a superb achievement and speaks volumes of the athleticism and determination of their pupils.”

At Hyndburn Sport Centre, the event – sponsored by Aviva – brought togther the best schools from Burnley, Blackburn, Chorley, Blackpool, Darwen, Hyndburn, South Ribble, Rossendale, West Lanca-shire, Preston, Wyre and Fylde, Morecambe, Pendle, Lancaster and the Ribble Valley all battling it out to become the county champions.

And it was the Ribble Valley representatives that took the accolade.

St Augustine’s amassed 388 points from the 11-discipine event – five more than Baines High School from Poulton-Le-Fylde who also booked their place in the North West finals.

It was a display of all-round athleticism from the team captained by Taylor Hawcroft and included Oliver Odudu, Jack Jameson, Jack Sothern, Luke Philipedes, Ryan Isherwood, Patrick Fleming and Cameron Deacon.

While it was a real team performance, there was some notably results.

Taylor Hawcroft was first in the six lap lap ‘A’ event and was second in the vertical jump ‘B’ event.

Oliver Odudu and Jack Jameson were first in the speed bounce ‘A’ and ‘B’ events respectively with Cameron Deacon winning the ‘B’ event shot put.

And Jack Sothern and Oliver Odudu won the eight lap parluuf ‘A’ event.

Brougton finished in third place with Hollins, representing Hyndburn, the second best placed East Lancs school in fourth place.

Parklands from Chorley were sixth with Burnley winners Blessed Trinity in ninth place.

Darwen Vale High School were 11th, ahead of Park from Pendle in 12th and St Wilfrid’s in 13th position.

But the day belonged to St Augustine’s.

“We are really proud of our boys for achieving such success.,” added Kelly. “It is one thing to become champions of Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, but to become champions of the whole of Lancashire is something special.

“When you include all the schools that took part in local rounds in addition to those competing in the final, then 112 schools in total from across the county were involved.

Therefore this really puts our boys achievements into perspective.

“The competition at the Regionals will be fierce but no doubt our pupils are looking forward to it and will be training hard for the next few weeks in an attempt to become North West Champions.”