ST BEDE’S High School’s talented table tennis players have enjoyed plenty of success at town, county and national level.

The super Saints stormed to glory in the Blackburn and Darwen Table Tennis League, reached the English Schools Championships and have been crowned Premier League 4 Sport national winners.

On top of all that, head coach Dave Pilkington has been selected to coach the England Schools Under 11s side in the British Championships to be held in Guernsey next month.

First up for the busy Bede’s were the English Schools Championships where they were looking to book a place in the regional finals.

And a team of Greg Simms, George Caton, Joe Gebbie, James Thompson and Seth Elliott defeated schools from Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Shropshire to book their place in the finals to be held in Grantham in Lincolnshire where they will compete against the top 16 teams from across the country.

St Bede’s fielded six teams in the Blackburn and Darwen Table Tennis League’s annual tournament and success came thick and fast.

Jake Jose and Adam Higginson were the first to get their hands on some silverware, winning the Telegraph Trophy in the handicap doubles. In an all-St Bede’s final, Joe Gebbie defeated Seth Elliott in the Makinson Shield and Greg Simms went extremely close to winning the handicap singles event, narrowly losing to seasoned veteran Colin Parkinson who plays for St Bede’s Table Tennis Club.

The school’s final success came in the Lancashire Table Tennis Championships where Jess Kitt was flying the flag for St Bede’s and she just missed out on glory in the Under 16s age group where she was runner-up.

Pilkington was delighted with the school’s success but now says attention will turn to finding the next batch of talented players.

“An awful lot of hard work and dedication is shown by our students throughout the league and tournament season and it is good to see their endeavours rewarded,” he said. “However, from my perspective, it’s now back to basics and time to focus on the next batch of up and coming players as it is essential to nurture the grassroots of the game.”

Meanwhile, at the Premier League 4 Sport national finals in Birmingham, St Bede’s beat all before them under the watchful eye of British table tennis legend, Desmond Douglas.

The Saints were representing Blackburn Rovers and were up against schools where the club colours of teams from up and down the country.

St Bede’s were drawn in the same group as schools playing for Spurs, Newcastle, West Brom, Hull, Derby County, Southampton and Swansea.

The tournament introduced a new scoring system where matches were played on four tables simultaneously with two boys and two girls in each team.

Matches, each lasting five minutes, started and finished at the same time and at the final whistle the four match scores were totalled up and the team with the most points were crowned winners.

The super Saints’ Rovers team of Joe Gebbie, Jake Jose, Jess Kitt, Ellie Brindle and Izzy Priory remained unbeaten all day, winning all of their group games then defeating Sunderland in the semi finals and Newcastle in the final.

The team received their trophies from Desmond and England women’s number one Kelly Sibley.

“The PL4Sport initiative has been absolutely excellent,” said coach David Pilkington.

“It has put time, effort and money in to local table tennis at St Bede’s and at Hyndburn and all the hard work has paid off, culminating in Blackburn Rovers FC winning a national title.

“I whole heartedly commend the entire team for the hard work and dedication.”