BASKETBALL is booming in York. Archbishop Holgate's School battled their way through to the Under 15 National Schools final and York College have retained the North East Regional British Colleges title.

The Archie's boys came up against formidable opponents in Hackney FP in their final.

The East London side, who boast three junior internationals in their side, won both legs of the final.

Archbishop Holgate's had made impressive progress to the final, beating St Matthew's (Manchester) 65-36 in the semi-finals, Eaglescliffe (Yarm) 59-39 in the quarters after defeating Boroughbridge 54-19 and Filey 48-27 in the Yorkshire finals.

Archbishop's, who are the York champions at U-14 and U-15 level, have been sponsored by Next Generation, who have supplied the school with t-shirts and caps.

York College rounded off their title-winning season with an 82-42 demolition of Doncaster College in the final.

Sports tutor Jamie Rank said: "After keeping the nucleus of the same squad that won the trophy last year, the team went on an unbeaten run this

season, culminating in a very one-sided final."

York College's Simon Durston, was a member of the North East of England trampoline team which finished third in the British College's Sports finals at Loughborough.

Claire Duck was 15th, out of 50 in her trampolining event.

York College's boys' hockey team finished eighth with John Leggott College (Scunthorpe) winning the competition.

Updated: 10:30 Wednesday, April 16, 2003