TEENAGE Kent tenpin bowler Georgia Cooper has picked up a national adult title after a whirlwind National Championships in Surrey.

Cooper, aged just 13 years and two months, won the Group C ladies’ singles in Tolworth - despite not even being in the field ahead of the tournament.

The youngster, who bowls for Cliftonville YBC, is a member of the national Junior Enhanced Training Academy and receives coaching in Sheffield.

She narrowly missed out on a place in the JETS team to take part at Tolworth but because of the delay in naming the squad, it was too late for her to enter the tournament with another team.

She travelled to support older sister Beckie as a spectator but when one of Cliftonville’s bowlers dropped out, she was drafted in.

Her dad John Cooper, who is also the club’s vice-president, said: “There was a free space so Georgia stepped in. She had no personal equipment with her and had to borrow some house shoes and a friend’s bowling ball.”

Despite the disadvantage she achieved scores of 178, 203 and 155 to accrue 536 points in the series and take the title.