The weekend of the 6th and 7th of April saw London Academy complete a double victory, winning in two divisions of the Senior British League.
In Nottingham, London Academy 1, lead by former pupil Gabriel Achampong, romped to the Senior British League, Championship Division title as four victories on the final weekend saw them finish the season unbeaten and seven points clear at the top.
In London, Division B (4) was contested by the homegrown foursome of Sienna Jetha, Shahuraj Nimse, Parsa Yamin and Ching Sum (Victoria) Pang (stepping in to replace Fernando Frandes).
It is a measure of just how good London Academy’s student’s are, that not only have they won titles in the Junior British League, they have also stepped up to join their older club mates in winning their division of the Senior British League.
London Academy 2 went into the final weekend sitting in third place, level on points with the top two teams (Portsea Island and Fusion) with Draycott 3 close behind. Two of their four matches would be against their main rivals with a third being against WCBTT who were fielding their strongest team of the season. If London Academy were going to win the title, they would have to do it the hard way.
First up was an easy victory over Godalming Simply Let, with two wins for Sienna, a win each for Parsa and Victoria and a doubles victory giving London Academy the win at 5-1.
Saturday Afternoon meant a tougher tie against London rivals Fusion 3. Although Shahuraj won his first match easily, the next three went to Fusion. Despite the pressure, London Academy levelled the match at three all with two incredibly narrow victories, firstly for Shahuraj and Parsa in the doubles and then for Sienna in her second singles match. These wins proved to be vital as London Academy eventually won 5-4 and moved into first place.
Sunday Morning saw the hardest match of the weekend against the in-form Draycott 3. Once again London Academy went into the doubles 3-1 down, with only a single victory by Sienna in the first 4 matches. And again, they levelled the match at 3-3 with a doubles win and a victory for Sienna.
The next two matches were shared which left Victoria needing to win the last match in order to take the tie. She fought hard to win by just 3 points in the last set. This kept the team in the lead and they just had to beat WCBTT to seal the title.
For a while this looked like a match too far. Heavy losses in the opening two games meant London Academy could have fallen at the final hurdle. However, the match suddenly turned on it’s head.
Victoria blasted past her one opponent in straight sets. Then Parsa, like so many times before this season, fought his way to a win past a very tricky opponent to level the tie. From there on it was all London Academy. Shahu and Parsa trounced their more experienced opponents in the doubles to put London Academy ahead and late wins for Sienna, Victoria and Shahu sealed the match and the title.