The Outreach Championships are now well under way. The fourth tournament took place at the London Academy on March 27th. 45 players played in five bands throughout the day.
Over the six months that the championship has been running we have had a total of 82 players take part. Player get points for both participation and wins in their bands. The higher bands are worth more points. The table as it currently stands rewards both attendance and performance.
Our top twenty currently stands as follows. You can see the full list at this link.
| Player | Rank | Total |
| Leo Khan | 1 | 123 |
| Soraya Rahmani | 2 | 120 |
| Yacoub Rahmani | 3 | 102 |
| Mitchell Hedges | 4 | 80 |
| Serene Rahmani | 5 | 79 |
| Inayah Zasella | 6 | 78 |
| Daniel Akrobati | 7 | 72 |
| Stephan Pop | 8 | 69 |
| Bal Balken | 9 | 67 |
| Mohammed Radhy | 10 | 67 |
| Ines Kojkol | 11 | 64 |
| Kevin Wedzik | 12 | 61 |
| Divya Shah | 13 | 58 |
| Nicolas Lavric | 14 | 58 |
| Fetin Zefaradak | 15 | 55 |
| Aiza Ahmed | 16 | 54 |
| Donika Aliu | 17 | 54 |
| Ruby Gandi Bamidele | 18 | 48 |
| Wafaa Oukhene | 19 | 48 |
| Leah Mulqueen Brown | 20 | 47 |
For this tournament we tried a new system. Instead of promoting players for the next tournament we promoted players between bands from the morning to the afternoon.
Our 4 promoted players on the day were Stephan Pop, Leo Khan, Mitchell Hedges and Deven Ruparelli. All of these players were the best of their divisions in the morning session and moved up a division in the afternoon.
Band 1 saw Inayah Zasella, Zack Sarri and Soraya Rahmani fight it out for the top three places. After successful morning sessions the three players dominated the afternoon session with 2 wins each. After a countback, Inayah took the gold from Zack by virtue of a single extra set win.
Band 2 was a more straightforward affair with Bal Balken winning all six matches throughout the day to take Gold. Second place came down to just 2 points in a hard fought 5-set match between Hugo Trayanov and Mohammed Radhy. Hugo took an early two set lead but Mohammed pegged him back in the third and the fourth. Hugo was not to be denied though and held his nerve to take the fifth set 11-9 and take the Silver Medal.
Band 3 belonged to Connor Godley who beat every player he faced on the day to take the Gold Medal. Second place, on the other hand, was only decided by the tightest of countbacks. Rayan Hammad, Kevin Wedzik and Ruby Gandi all ended the afternoon session with the same number of wins. The set count meant that Rayan took the Silver from Kevin by a just 10%. Ruby just missed out on the medals this time.
Band 4 saw Gold and silver medal places being settled in the very last match of the day when Julia Palka claimed the top spot with an emphatic 3-set victory over second placed Gabriel Banaga. The Bronze had been settled in the previous match when Miriam Alicia Unciuleanu lost out to Logan Stout, also in three sets.
Band 5 was the biggest band of the day with 13 players fighting it out in the afternoon. The top spots were decided early in the afternoon when Emil Jogona beat Julia Dziadkowiec in a tough 4 set match. Emil took the gold and will move up to Band 4 for the next tournament.
The next tournament will see medals for promoted players as well as those who top their groups.
Once again, the players behaviour was exemplary on the day with every participant competing to the fullest and in the best spirit.
A mention should go to all of the parents who organised their own 2 group competition on the day. We hope that more parent will get involved playing in future.