HEATHFIELD School pupil Charlotte Bardsley helped England to claim a superb fifth place in the cadet girls’ team event at the European Youth Championships.

The 14-year-old from Stourbridge competed alongside Mollie Patterson and Denise Payet and helped England beat Latvia 3-0, Portugal 3-2 and Norway 3-0 to top their group.

Subsequent play-off victories over Italy (3-2) — sealed by Bardsley’s 3-0 defeat of Valentina Roncallo — and third seeds France (3-1) put England into the last eight, where Slovenia proved too strong in a 3-0 scoreline.

Bardsley then won both her singles matches, including the deciding rubber against Franziska Schreiner, as England recorded a 3-2 triumph over Germany.

That put them into the fifth and sixth play-off against Hungary, where Payet and Patterson sealed a 3-2 victory.

It was an amazing performance as England started the competition in the second tier, outside the top 16 nations.

Bardsley said: “The general aim was to try and top the group and get in the top division.

“Pulling together as a team helped us to fight through tough matches.”

She had previously won a bronze medal at the Lithuania Cadet and Mini Cadet Open and the same medal at the Cadet Six Nations.