RISING star Jack 'The Hat' Moore is the toast of Dorset after winning the Badminton England Under-11 National Championship at the Redbridge Sports Centre in Essex.

The Baden Powell and St Peter's Junior School pupil, who is coached by Tom Ashford at David Lloyd in Poole, stormed to the title without dropping a single game as he saw off some talented opponents.

Jack, who got his nickname as he is always found wearing either a trilby, flat cap or baseball cap, entered the tournament as the number one seed and is currently the highest graded under-11 player in the country.

The nine-year-old first picked up a racket at the age of three and has represented Dorset at under-11, under-12, under-14 and under-18 level.

Dorset under-11 player Jack made his intentions clear as he breezed through his preliminary group without dropping a game before beating third seed Jaxon Clarke from Hertfordshire 15-13,15-6.

And he took the silverware with an outstanding 15-11, 15-10 victory over Buckinghamshire's Aarav Sujith in the final.

His record of 12 games won and 180 points for and 89 against made for impressive reading.

Jack almost bettered this fantastic achievement just a week later when, playing in the under-13 nationals, he reached the quarter-finals and overcame a number of players three and four years older than him.

Ashford, a level three badminton coach and Dorset county head coach, said he had been impressed by Jack's ability, racket skills and mobility, which he said were exceptional for such a young player.

He also said he was "proud" to have coached him and revealed Jack was the newest and youngest player to be accepted for the Badminton England Pathway which should lead to international honours when he is older.

Jack has only been playing seriously for two years, having given up tennis for badminton, and his progress has been dynamic.

He was a shock runner-up in the 2016-2017 under-11 nationals at the age of eight last year.

As the youngest player and unseeded entry, he beat three seeds en route to the final, including the number one seed in the semi-final and only lost out to another seeded player in the final.

Jack has numerous medals and trophies and due to his positive and happy attitude on and off court, is a well known and popular member of the badminton community at all age levels.

He is sponsored by Mark Taylor and Guy Anderson of The Taylor Property Group, Grant Murphy at Poole Mitsubishi, Mark Lever of The Yonex Stringing Centre and Paul Tapper from Tappers Funeral Services.

Dorset are holding county training trials on June 9.