Ashville College pupil James Douthwaite has recently been selected for the Yorkshire county Under-16 rugby union team after competing against hundreds of young hopefuls.

Douthwaite (pictured) played in five pre-selective trial matches before finally being invited to play in the U16 Yorkshire final trial day. His outstanding performance earned him a place as a winger and he played his first match against Cumbria last week.

Said Ian Gould, head of boys' sports at the Harrogate-based school: "James, a regular member of our first team has performed outstandingly and we are extremely pleased that he has been selected for the Yorkshire U16 team.

"He has become the fifth boy in recent years to have made one of the county squads."

Other recent Ashville successes include Ben Pease, who has been selected for the U18 'A' XV Yorkshire squad and Andrew Butterfield, Justin Kane and Junior Ayodele, who all represented North Yorkshire in the recent U15 Yorkshire Inter-district tournament.

Ayodele has since been invited to the U15 Yorkshire development day to be held at the end of this month.

Updated: 09:58 Saturday, November 22, 2003