Joe Clark and Alex Ramsden bagged a podium finish with a brilliant run at the Austria Sparkasse Youth Championships.

The duo reached the final of the team competition at the tournament, which sees youngsters represent either club or country teams.

Representing ‘North Westfield’ in the Cadet Boys’ Team event, the duo won all three group matches 3-0 against CTT Blonay, Linz Ag Froschberg and Luxembourg 2.

That put them into the Championship Group stages, and they continued their good form by beating Swiss Table Tennis 3-1 and SV Schott and AC Boulogne Billancourt 2, both 3-0.

In the positional play-offs, they saw off TSV Schwabhausen 3-1 and AC Boulogne Billancourt 1 3-1 to advance to the final, only to fall just short against Moselle, losing 3-2.

In the Cadet Boys’ Singles, Ramsden reached the semi-finals with some impressive victories but again could not get the better of Moselle, as opponent Victor Deville beat him 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 5-11, 7-11).

Clark also made it through the group stage and early rounds to reach the last 16, where he lost to Ilyes Berrichi of AC Boulogne Billancourt 1-3 (11-9, 9-11, 7-11, 8-11).

Also in action at the event in Linz were Isabelle Joubeily and Holly Williams, representing ‘Swerve’, while Robyn Cosgrove, Rachael Scott, Danielle Kelly and Nicole Scott made up the ‘NW England Girls’ team.

Joubeily also got herself on to a podium, winning the Challenge Consolation Singles by beating Cosgrove 3-1 (11-1, 10-12, 11-6, 11-8) in the semi-finals and Annigrete Suimets 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 12-10) in the final.

In the Cadet Girls’ Team event, Swerve advanced from the group stage with two victories and one defeat, but lost both matches in the Championship group stage, eventually ending in 10th place after the play-offs.

In the Junior Girls’ Singles, the highlight was Rachael Scott coming from 2-0 down to beat Louis Jakobsen of Denmark in the group stage. In the team event, she and Cosgrove reached the Challenge knockout stage, finishing sixth after the positional play-offs.

The Younger Cadet Girls’ Team event saw Danielle Kelly and Nicole Scott in action, and Kelly picked up a superb victory in the first group match, beating No 7 ranked European under-13 Niamh Stricova of the Czech Republic 3-1 (13-11, 7-11, 13-11, 11-9).

However, in a tough group, the girls were unable to claim a match victory and consequently went into in the Challenge event, winning one and losing one in their group and then winning one and losing one in the play-offs to end in fifth position.

In the singles, Scott one won and lost two group matches and, after being knocked out of the Challenge section, reached the final of the Consolation event, where she lost 3-0 to Irena Dujmovic (9-11, 11-13, 1-11).

Kelly picked up an elbow injury and, although she battled on, she had to withdraw during her second group match. After treatment, she was able to play in the team event and record her impressive win over Stricova.