Yarm School's rowers won their first ever medal in a national competition when one of the crews took a bronze medal at the National Schools Regatta held last week at the National Watersports Centre, Nottingham.

Three Yarm crews won through to finals, but it was the J15 Aii squad of Francis Jones, Richard Lywood, Alex Houston, Philip Gray and Ian Coates who defeated Kings Chester, Worcester RGS and Hampton School to secure the bronze medal behind KCS Wimbledon and winners Kings Canterbury.

Smaller, but more skilful than their opponents, the crew improved their semi-final time by 35 seconds to claim their medal.

The achievement completed a hat-trick of national sporting success for the school this year after the under 13 tennis team reached the finals of the HSBC championships in Essex and the under 15 rugby team reached the semi-finals of the Daily Mail Cup.

The school is hoping to achieve even greater success next year. It has been boosted by the confirmation of planning permission to build a new astroturf pitch, which will benefit the training programmes of the tennis and hockey teams.