YORK squash starlets Joe Twigge and Poppie Jaram helped Yorkshire reign supreme on the national stage.

Wigginton Squash Club’s Twigge and Jaram, of Dunnington Squash Club, played crucial roles as Yorkshire’s Under-15s boys and U15s girls won their respective titles at the Inter-Counties Championships in Surrey.

Twigge, ranked 42nd in the country at U15s level, is unbeaten in 19 inter-counties appearances for the White Rose at U13s and U15s.

He lined up alongside Elliot Ridge, of Pontefract, Chapel Allerton’s Ben Merchant, Abbeydale’s Nick Wall and Lewis Southward, of Pontefract The five-strong team, who have been playing together since the age of nine and who won the U13s title in 2012, came through two tough qualifying rounds to reach the finals.

In the first round in Carlisle in November, they beat Northumberland 5-0, Cumbria 4-1 and Durham and Cleveland 4-1.

That took them through to the second round in Nottingham in December, where their strength in depth saw them claim a maximum 60 points after beating Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire 5-0.

Twigge, playing at number five, won all his matches and only dropped one game.

At the finals weekend, they beat Essex 5-0 in the semi-finals, dropping only one game. Twigge won his match 3-0.

The following day, they took on a strong Sussex side boasting the top two in the England Squash U15s rankings.

Merchant dismantled his opponent 3-0 within 15 minutes, while Twigge had to dig deep, twice coming back from game points down to eventually run out a 3-1 winner. Ridge carried Yorkshire over the winning line with the victory of his life, 3-1, while Southward claimed his match 3-0. Sussex restored some honour when they won the dead rubber with Nick Wall 3-0.

Jaram and her team-mates also came through two qualifying rounds en route to the finals.

Initially they came out on top in a group consisting of Buckinghamshire, Norfolk and Essex with Jaram winning all her matches 3-0.

In the second round, Yorkshire were matched up against tough opposition in Cumbria, Northumbria and Derbyshire, but again they topped the group and Jaram claimed a clean sweep of wins. As a result, they were installed as top seeds for the finals weekend in Guildford, where they were pitched in with Sussex, Surrey and Essex.

They reached the final with a 4-1 victory over Surrey, Jaram playing her part with a 3-1 triumph.

In the final against Sussex, the first two games were shared before the southern side took the lead.

Jaram levelled the tie with an impressive display under pressure and Yorkshire took the title thanks to Gabby Mawson’s 3-0 win in the decider.