Yarm School's Under 13s boys team battled their way to third place in the national finals of the HSBC/British Schools Tennis Team Competitions at the Redbridge sports centre in Essex.

The quartet of Matthew Jackman, Daniel Wise, Laurence Heads and Tim Purdy put up a brave fight before going down 4-2 to national champions Garenden of Leicestershire in the semi-finals. They were level at 2-2 after the four singles rubbers, only losing out in the final two doubles matches.

But the next day they crushed Millfield, of Somerset, 5-1 in the third place play-off.

The Yarm team, who had earned a place in the finals after defeating Cheadle Hulme to take the Northern title last month, also had the chance to meet British number one Tim Henman, who was presenting the prizes