BEN PIGGOTT and Tom Rayner from the Ormesby club in Middlesbrough are celebrating becoming national table tennis champions.

The pair won the junior boys’ doubles gold at the Mark Bates Ltd Cadet, Under-17 & Junior National Championships in Nottingham at the weekend.

Having made their way through the early rounds, they took on second seeds Connor Green and Joshua Bruce in the semi-finals, and edged through 3-1 (15-13, 8-11, 13-11, 11-8).

They faced the top seeds, Toby Ellis and Louis Price, in the final and it was another tight victory in four sets as the Teessiders won 3-1 (9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8).

Piggott, 17, from Stockton, said: “It feels amazing, to be honest. My first ever national title, so that’s good. I’m just excited to get back to my house, relax, have a parmo and just chill! I’m happy, very happy.”

Rayner, 18 and from Darlington, said: “We train together every day. All these doubles teams, it feels like they’re just playing singles, but we actually worked together and planned every point, planned every receive. That’s definitely why we’ve won.”

Piggott added: “There’s situations where I knew what he was doing and he knew what I was doing, it’s because we train together all the time. It’s perfect.”

The partners actually met in the last 16 of the junior boys’ singles and Rayner beat the higher-ranked Piggott 3-2 (12-10, 5-11, 11-9, 4-11, 11-9). Rayner then went out in the quarter-finals to fifth seed Price, who won another tight match 3-2 (11-7, 10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7).

Piggott reached the junior mixed doubles final too alongside Anna Green, where they took on Green’s twin brother, Connor, and older sister, Erin. It was silver for Piggott and Green as their opponents won 3-0 (11-8, 16-14, 12-10). Rayner and Anaya Patel had gone out in the last 16 of that competition.

Piggott also featured in the Under-17 competitions, taking a bronze medal by reaching the singles semi-finals to finish the tournament with gold, silver and bronze. Seeded third, he went down 3-1 (11-6, 13-15, 11-8, 11-8) to eventual champion Naphong Boonyaprapa.

In the Under-17 boys’ doubles, Piggott and Felix Thomis went out 3-2 (11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 1-11, 11-5) to Boonyaprapa and Connor Green in the semi-finals – no bronze medals are awarded in doubles.

Ormesby's Ella Pashley also had success, winning the silver medal in the Under-17 girls' singles. Unseeded, she stormed through to the final, beating the eighth and fifth seeds on the way, and faced second seed Megan Jones in the final. It was Jones who won 3-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 11-4).

Pashley, from Guisborough, was sixth seed in the cadet girls' singles but ran into second seed and eventual champion Maliha Baig in the quarter-finals and was beaten 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 12-10). Alongside Rebecca Savage, she reached the Under-17 girls doubles semi-finals, where they were beaten in five sets by second seeds Amy Marriott and Saskia Key.