TABLE Tennis players from the Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School won the team zone final for English schools at Wood Green Academy in Wednesbury.

Jake Price, Kyle Day, Joel Aldridge and Sam Williams teamed up for Bishop's and were placed in a group alongside Gosford Hall from Oxfordshire, Prince Henry School from Worcestershire and Streetly from Birmingham.

Bishop's comfortably won their first two games 8-0 against Gosford Hall and Streetly before facing Prince Henry, who they fought in last year's final, in their next game.

The Hereford school secured an excellent 6-2 win, with Price and Day winning both games and Aldridge and Williams winning one each.

The semi-final was against Marling School from Gloucestershire.

After six games, Bishop's were 6-2 ahead and needed one more win to claim the win.

That was achieved by Aldridge beating the Marling number two 3-1.

The final was a rematch against Prince Henry School.

The match started much tighter than the group encounter and after two sets all, the four games were tied at 1-1.

Price and Aldridge then won their games 3-1 to put Bishop's two ahead, while Day came from 2-1 down to beat Ali Witheford 11-7 in the fifth after earlier beating him 3-0 in the group stage.

Williams also won a tough five setter against Johny Lyons after losing to him in the group.

The great start put Bishop's 4-9 ahead with four to play.

Prince Henry won a game to get on the scoresheet, but 3-0 wins for Day and Williams put Bishop's into a comfortable 6-1 lead.

In the final game, Aldridge played Ed Sommers; the latter winning the group match.

Sommers won the first two sets 11-5 and 11-6, but in a fantastic comeback, Aldridge overpowered his opponent to win the last three sets 11-6, 11-6, 11-8.

"Overall this was a very pleasing performance," said coach Simon Morgan.

"Jake and Sam finished with a very respectable eight out of 10 wins, while Kyle and Joel finished with nine out of 10.

"All the players need to be highly commended and this was a great team performance.

"A special mention must go to Joel Aldridge who was outstanding on the day.

"He was promoted from player four last season to player three this season and his personal win rate went up from three out of 10 last season to nine out of 10 this season against better players.

"With this win in the final Bishops' improved on the last two seasons and now progress to the regional finals at Bristol in March as zone winners."

Meanwhile, Day recently competed at the East Midlands 4 Star tournament in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire – the highest level of open national tournament in the country for cadets and juniors.

In the Cadet Band 1, Day qualified from his group before being knocked out in the quarter-finals by Welsh number four Louie Evans.

Then in the Open Cadets, Day, who was seeded number three, came second after beating Chamika Weeasinghe and Charlie Ollerenshaw 3-0.

The Bishop's pupil, who is ranked number 64 in England at under-16 cadets level, then lost to Naphong Boonyprapa.

The next round saw hum beat Ricardo Bolanos 3-0, which earned a last 16 match against England number three player Ethan Walsh.

An excellent start saw Day go 6-1 ahead, but Walsh came back strongly to eventually win 11-9, 11-8, 11-9

"Kyle played really well and certainly pushed his opponent all the way and was very close in all three sets," added Morgan.