WINNING doubles gold was a huge consolation for Shayan Siraj after not making it on to the singles podium at the Cadet & Junior National Championships.

The Bramhope teenager was seeded third for the Cadet boys’ singles at the event in Huddersfield, but was knocked out in the quarter-finals by seventh seed Jonny McMullan, losing 4-2 (13-11, 5-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10).

But he and partner Harry Dai impressed in the doubles, beating surprise finalists Sam Chesterman and Amirul Hussain 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-9) to take the gold.

The pair had also reached the semi-finals of the older age group junior doubles the previous day, losing 3-1 (11-5, 11-4, 4-11, 11-8) to top seeds and eventual champions Tom Jarvis and Alex Ramsden – bronze medals were not awarded in the doubles.

Siraj said: “After getting knocked out of the singles, it’s good to win the doubles. After doing well in the juniors, we thought we had a good chance.”

Their opponents in the final had knocked out top seeds James Smith and Ethan Walsh and Siraj added: “We were expecting to play Ethan and James, but there was a shock result. It put more pressure on because we were expected to win.”

The event is for the 32 top-ranked players in the country and Siraj also qualified for the older age group junior singles, but he was eliminated in the group stage.