It's not every day that you walk into the Barrow Open Table Tennis practice and see two England Internationals knocking up together! This happened earlier this summer when Emily Bolton and Sophie Ackred practised together at St. Bernard's. 

Emily Bolton became the first Barrow League player to ever gain selection for England at a world Games when she was picked for the England Women's team at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022. Emily began her table tennis journey when she was introduced to the sport by teacher Stephen Cairns at Askam Village School. She soon enjoyed success in Cumbria Schools' events in both team and Individual events, then going on to National Finals with both Askam and Dowdales schools. She played for Barrow Juniors in the Barrow League before moving to Grantham to continue both her academic and table tennis educations. To read more about Emily and her reaction to her call up follow this link - Bolton's confident of playing her part after late call-up - Table Tennis England

Sophie earnt her second England call up earlier this summer when she represented England at the Secondary Schools' Home Nations Championships played at Largs in Scotland. She played in the Under 14 Event, alongside her friend and teammate Naomi Coker. As a team they competed against teams from Scotland (x2) Guernsey (x2) Wales Ireland and another England team. Sophie and Naomi played really well together and suffered only one loss to their England teams which meant they came away with the silver medal while the 2nd England team took the gold.