Ben Rhydding’s under-18 boys’ team have won their respective North of England Indoor Championship.

They won four games out of four in Hull against the best teams from the region and will now represent the North in the national finals next month in Birmingham.

Ben Rhydding started slowly against Bolton but eventually got into their stride, with fast-running forwards Elliot Dowley, Josh Sykes, Mitchell Welman-Brown, Ross McMillan and Harry Sherlock taking hard lines at their opposition.

The defence of Henry Locke, Matty Birch and Ali Jordan were resolute, and Cameron Herbert pulled off some great saves behind them.

Bolton were beaten by six, with goals from Sherlock, Birch (2), Welman-Brown and Sykes (2) but they felt the competition was only going to get tougher.

However, Preston struggled to find form and were beaten 8-1, with goals from McMillan (3), Birch (2), Sykes, Jordan and Sherlock.

The next two games did represent a step up in inten-sity as Ben Rhydding were faced by Bowdon and Windermere, who had both shown great promise.

It took a while to break down Bowdon but two spectacular goals from Dowley got Ben Rhydding started.

Skipper Jordan then rallied the troops with a solo effort as Bowdon fell 3-1.

The final game was a nail-biter that started comfortably in Rhydding’s favour as they took a an early two-goal lead early against Windermere, who fought back strongly to 3-3.

Then it was end-to-end action after that as Rhydding found their inner strength to win 10-5.

Goals in the high-scoring contest came from Birch (3), Dowley (2), Sykes (2), Sherlock (2), Jordan and Locke.

Training for the finals in Birmingham start over the Christmas period.