Month: February 2023

London Academy became the girls’ Premiership winners when the Junior British League titles were decided at Derby Arena over the weekend.

London Academy held off Wensum to win the girls’ elite division, despite losing their unbeaten record in the process.

The London squad led by just 2 points going into the final slate of matches. Saturday went well for them with their closest rivals, Wensum and Grantham College, fighting each other to a standstill in a 3-3 draw.

At this point London Academy only had to defeat Wensum in the penultimate round to virtually guarantee an overall victory. However, they finally lost their perfect record, coming off worse in a narrow 4-2 tussle which swung one way and the other. Sophie Barcsai put London in front with a five-game victory over Tianer Yu, but Wensum hit back to lead 3-1, including a five-game win for Mari Baldwin over Nora Dohoczki.

Barcsai gave London a chance of a draw by beating Saskia Key in four, but Baldwin’s victory over Sienna Jetha sealed it for Wensum.

Defending champions Wensum kept up the pressure with a final round victory over Draycott. That left London Academy needing a win over third placed Grantham to take the title.

The final match was a nerve jangling affair with 3 of the first 4 matches going to a deciding set. It was the London girls grit and determination which saw them through, with Sophie and Nora (twice) winning in the fifth set to put London Academy up by 3 games to 1.

Two more wins for Maliha and Sophie gave London Academy a 5-1 victory in the tie, and the Premiership title.

In the end it was London Academy's ability to claw their way to victory when other teams might settle for a draw that made all the difference.

Sophie Barcsai was London’s leading light, finishing top of the league averages with 19 wins out of 20.

Full report at the Table tennis England website.

London Academy students represented the school in the Boys' Under 11, Girls' Under 11, Boys' Under 16, and Girls' Under 16 competitions against teams from across the south of England.

Each team competition pitted four teams against each other in a league format. Team fixtures were made up of 8 individual matches. The only exception to this was the Girls' Under 16 competition where there were only two teams.

The Girls' Under 16 team was comprised of Sienna Jetha, Alisha Dutta, Mauli Shah, and Tadeea Aparaschivei. Their sole match saw them face off against Bromsgrove School from Worcestershire.

They won 8-0 for the quickest victory of the day.

The Girls' Under 11 team were matched against teams from Essex, Devon, and Buckinghamshire. Despite losing Inayah Zasella to illness, the team of Soraya and Serene Rhahmani-Walentynske, Assil Sarri, and Ruby Gandi Bamidele proved far too strong for the opposition.

They won all of their matches 8-0, and did not drop a single set through the day.

The Boys' Under 11 Team faced off against teams from Hertfordshire, Worcestershire, and Devon. The first fixture was a straightforward 8-0 victory for Yacoub Rahmani-Walentynske, Zack Sarri, Lewis Macsween and Korey Samuda over the boys from the Littletons CE First School from Evesham.

In the next round Stefan Pop and Adam Riadi stepped in to take on St. Christopher’s Prep School and Nursery from Totnes. The result was another 8-0 victory without a single set dropped. The final round saw Yacoub, Zack, Stefan and Adam facing off against the similarly unbeaten King’s School from Harpenden, needing one final victory to qualify for the ESTTA Nation Finals.

The match was tight in the early stages with London Academy holding a narrow 3-2 lead after the first 5 matches. But in the end the overall quality of the London Champions's squad proved too much for their Hertfordshire rivals. Stefan, Zack and Adam won the last three matches to make it 6-2 and sealing a fine victory.

The Under 16 boys, Fernando Frandes, Parsa Yamin, Shahuraj Nimse, Devan Shah, and Ilyes Djeraoui, had the stiffest opposition on the day.

Their deciding match against Buckingham's John Hampden was tight to begin with, but eventually the London side's greater strength in depth showed through with Shahuraj, Parsa and Ilyes coming through in the final three matches to seal victory.

All four teams will now go the national finals In April.