Charlotte Bardsley nets a welcome treble

The talented teenager has been named in the England squad for the European Youth Championships in Romania next month.

The 15-year-old will travel to Cluj-Napoca for the event, which runs from July 15-24 and features team and individual competitions.

The latest representative honour follows on from her inclusion in the senior squad for the Team World Cup earlier this year where she was called up to sample the experience and atmosphere of a top competition.

And Bardsley will head to Romania in confident mood following two more impressive individual successes

She ‘upgraded’ from the under-16 to under-19 title at the Butterfly National School Individual Championships.

Bardsley, who attends Heathfield School, Wolverley, won the under-16 title last year and this time took home the top age category crown after working her way through group and knockout stages.

She overcame Mollie Patterson in the final. It was a clash between the top two seeds and Bardsley, the No.1, took it 3-1 (11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7).

Bardsley said: “I knew it was going to be a mentally tough day because there’s a lot of different styles at the Schools and you have to keep making sure you are on it.

“Mollie played really well in the final and it was good preparation for the Nationals.”

It certainly did prove good preparation for the Nationals as Bardsley dominated the PG Mutual Cadet & Junior National Championships at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton.

She only dropped one set in the junior girls’ singles, and that when she was already 3-0 up in the final against fourth seed Jasmin Wong.

Wong had won the younger cadet title the previous day and was a dangerous opponent, but Bardsley was in no mood to let her standards slip as she won 4-1 (11-3, 11-8, 11-2, 7-11, 12-10), adding the trophy to the cadet one she won last year.

Bardsley said she had been motivated by disappointments in the girls’ doubles and mixed doubles, where despite being top seeds, she and her partners could not reach the finals.

In the former, Wong and partner Ruby Chan got the better of Bardsley and Megan Gidney 3-2 (14-16, 11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 11-9) in the semi-finals.

In the mixed, Bardsley and Ethan Walsh missed two match points as they went out in the quarter-finals to Jamie Liu and Chan, again 3-2 (6-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 12-10).

Bardsley said: “First of all, I’d like to say thanks to my coaches and parents, I’m grateful for their support. Everyone played really well and I had some tough matches.

“In the doubles, I think we played well and were a bit unlucky to lose 3-2 on both occasions. I knew I had one more chance to win a title in the singles and I wanted to make it count.”