Sabre-rattling girls from The Mount School, York, are celebrating further success in prestigious regional and national fencing competitions.

Helen Holloway, 14, has been selected for the England Under-18 team that will face Ireland, Scotland and Wales in the Quadrangle competition next March.

Holloway, who fences epee, has just returned from Germany where she was part of an eight-strong Great Britain team competing against teams from as far away as America and Switzerland.

At the recent Yorkshire Age Group Championships, in Sheffield, where qualification for the national championships is decided, pupils from the Mount School's junior department, Tregelles, demonstrated their skill in both foil and epee.

Three ten-year-olds, Abbi Matthews, Lucy Trotter and Sarah Proctor, came second, third and fourth respectively in the Under-12 foil competition and have all qualified to compete in the national finals.

Fellow Tregelles' pupils, Felicity Knowles, aged nine, came seventh and Olivia Hanson, ten years, came tenth in the same competition.

Matthews went on to take third place in the Under-14 epee section and has therefore also qualified in that discipline for the national finals in May.

All the girls are coached by Brian Matlass, of Harrogate, who was recently crowned coach of the year by the British Fencing Association in recognition of his work with young Yorkshire fencers.