Simon Hardcastle from Billericay emerged as the most successful player of the weekend when he won three National Badminton titles at the English Schools Badminton Association Championships.

In the Boys Singles, Simon, 14, played well in the final to take his first title reasonably comfortably, by beating Tom Dudley from Dorset, 15-8, 15-6.

He then teamed up with Tom for the Boys Doubles final against Andrew Smith of Hampshire and Steven Mumby of Lincolnshire.

Andrew and Steven had won all the previous encounters and it looked as though this would be no exception when they took the first game easily, 15-3.

However, Simon and Tom were not going to give up without a fight and eventually won a long and close second game 15-13.

In the deciding game it was again very close but Simon and Tom clinched the title, winning by a margin of 15-10.

By now it looked as though the 'triple' was a definite possibility. So on to the Mixed Doubles where Simon was partnered by Hayley Connor, from Surrey.

The opposition, Steven Mumby and Tracy Field got a good start and won the first game 15-8.

However, after that things went the way of Simon and Hayley and they won the next two games for Simon to take his third title of the Championships.

Top boy . . Simon Hardcastle, who won three titles at the English Schools National Badminton Association Championships.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.