London Academy picked up a hat-trick of titles at the Butterfly Schools Team Championships in Wolverhampton.
St Edward’s Catholic Primary School won the under-11 boys’ competition for the third year in a row, Heanor Gate Spencer Academy retained their title at under-19 girls, and three other schools also tasted success.
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Under-19 Girls
Heanor Gate Spencer Academy retained the Claud Kichenside as sisters Jasmin and Naomi Coker won all three matches with something to spare.
It was 5-0 against Prince Henry’s High School from Evesham and 4-1 against both Ackworth School and Wallington High School for Girls from Sutton.
Ackworth finished in second place thanks to 3-2 victories over both Prince Henry’s and Wallington, coming from behind both times as they were 1-0 down to the former and 2-1 down to the latter. Rebecca Savage’s full house of singles victories across those two matches were instrumental.
Wallington earned third with a 5-0 win over Prince Henry’s.
Naomi Coker said: “It’s good to win because it’s the last opportunity for me to win with my sister, because she won’t be able to play next year. So it’s good to finish on a high and defend our title.
“It was a hard match against Rebecca Savage – I managed to win three straight but there were longer rallies and I had to keep fighting.”
Under-19 Boys
Grantham College took the Norman Cook Cup with three well-earned victories.
It was 7-1 against both University College School from Hampstead and Wallington Grammar School from Sutton.
That set up a decider against King’s School Grantham, who had also beaten UCS 7-1, as well as triumphing 5-3 against Wallington.
With local bragging rights as well as the trophy at stake, it went the way of the College with a 6-2 margin as they pulled away from 2-2 with four wins in a row, kick-started by Toby Ellis overcoming Harri Doherty 3-2 (8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6).
The winning line-up was: Toby Ellis, Adam Dennison, Djen Bakx, Gabriel Schogger and Daniel Goitom.
Daniel Goitom said: “I think we were pretty confident coming into it – our main worry was the King’s. It was a close match but we managed to win and it feels good.
Third place went to Wallington, courtesy of a 5-3 victory over UCS – a prolonged match in which only one match was decided in three straight.
Under-16 Girls
London Academy beat defending champions St George’s Catholic School to take the Mick Betts Memorial Cup.
London Academy defeated Toot Hill School from Nottingham 8-0 and Wade Deacon High School Widnes 7-1, while St George’s also won their both matches against Toot Hill and Wade Deacon, but by the reverse scorelines.
In the deciding match, St George’s twice took the lead at 1-0 and 2-1, with victories for Jonabel Taguibao and Jadeine Augustin over Alisha Dutta and Tadeea Aparaschivei respectively. But London Academy turned it around to win five on the trot, two of them in a deciding fifth game.
The winning line-up was: Sienna Jetha, Alisha Dutta, Mauli Shah and Tadeea Aparaschivei.
For the winners, 13-year-old Mauli Shah said: “We feel really proud to be winners of the under-16 girls. Last year, we participated here in the under-13s and we won that as well, so over all as a team we’ve done pretty well.
“We have all the support from our coaches and parents to be successful in the whole competition.”
Toot Hill finished third, defeating Wade Deacon 5-3.
Under-16 Boys
London Academy won the Leach-Carrington Cup as they edged a tight competition in which two of the matches ended in draws.
They beat St Mary’s College from Liverpool 8-0 and Reading School 6-2, while Warwick School beat St Mary’s 6-2 and drew 4-4 with Reading.
It meant that London Academy’s 4-4 draw with Warwick was enough to earn them the title – and they had to come from 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 down to make sure, the last match being won by Ilyes Djeraoui against Yannic Fowler by a scoreline of 3-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-8).
The winning London Academy team was: Fernando Frandes, Parsa Yamin, Shahuraj Nimse, Devan Shah and Ilyes Djeraoui.
Shahuraj Nimse, 14, said: “I’m glad and elated that we won, it was hard work but we worked our way through all our rounds and it paid off.
“Our coaches Bhavin (Savjani) and Gabriel (Achampong) guided us to the trophy.”
The third place was won by Reading, who beat St Mary’s 6-2.
Under-13 Girls
St Marylebone CE School from Westminster took a dramatic victory and with it the Hartshill Cup as they and Putney High School finished level on points and had to be separated by countback.
Both teams had an 8-0 victory over Acklam Grange School from Middlesbrough and it was also 8-0 for Putney over Bradford Grammar. St Marylebone defeated Bradford 7-1.
In the decisive meeting, it finished 4-4 between the top two in a see-saw match which saw the teams never separated by more than one match.
Twice, St Marylebone took the lead but were pegged back. Putney then moved in front at 3-2 but saw their opponents level up.
Eva Yared put St Marylebone back in front by defeating Martha Ground, but Putney clinched a draw as Yasmin Tunali-Flynn overcame Lily Frayssignes 3-2 (13-11, 8-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8).
However, when the maths was done, it was 14-12 in games in favour of St Marylebone, who had lost to Putney in the regional qualifying stage.
Their winning squad was: Nour Alamine, Eva Yared, Zeina Negm and Lily Frayssignes.
12-year-old Zeina Negm said: “I feel very happy and I can’t believe we made it this far. It’s our first time at the tournament and we needed to work hard.
“We wanted to be committed to win, and we managed to beat the team we couldn’t beat before.”
Bradford Grammar took third as they overcame Acklam Grange 6-2.
Under-13 Boys
University College School edged out Dorothy Stringer School to take the T Austin Harrison Cup.
Both teams beat Carlton le Willows Academy from Nottingham 8-0 and both also defeated St Mary’s College from Hull – it was 7-1 to UCS and 6-2 to Dorothy Stringer.
The unbeaten teams met to decide the final placings and Hampstead-based UCS came out on top 5-3 against their opponents, from Brighton.
It was a dramatic victory as UCS trailed three times as Brighton won matches 1, 3 and 5, including a double for Ryan Goodier.
By UCS turned it around to win the final three matches, with some close games along the way. Zhengxuan Xi made it 3-3 by defeating Rafael Macerenko 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10) and then Ruben Michaud put UCS in front thanks to a 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 15-13) victory over Finley Aitkin.
The decisive match went all the way and it was Avi Schliesser who sealed it thanks to a 3-2 (7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9 victory over Daniel Sue.
The winning squad was: Shai Chesterman, Zhengxuan Xi, Ruben Michaud, Avi Schliesser and Krischan Rajendra.
Shai Chesterman said of the victory: It feels great, it went down to the wire – it went to the fifth set in the last match for us to win it.
“Everyone was cheering and it was a great atmosphere. We’re very happy to win it.”
Third place went to St Mary’s, who beat Carlton Le Willows 5-3.
Under-11 Girls
London Academy were flawless in pursuit of the title as they won all three matches 8-0 against Dovedale Primary School from Derbyshire, Fox Primary from Kensington & Chelsea and Shakespeare Primary from Leeds.
They were so dominant, they only dropped two individual games all day as they lifted the Martin Foulser Cup.
The winning line-up was Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska, Assil Sarri, Inayah Zasella, Serene Rahmani-Walentynska and Ruby Gandi Bamidele.
Second were Fox, who had two 8-0 victories of their own, while third went to Dovedale by virtue of their 6-2 win over Shakespeare.
For the winners, Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska said: “It’s very, very, very good to be part of a team because we’re all best friends and it makes our relationship better. We divide the success by five.”
Under-11 Boys
St Edward’s Catholic Primary successfully defended the Irene Elliott Cup with three victories out of three – the third year in a row the school has finished top of the pile.
The Westminster school did not have things all their own way as they beat London Academy 7-1, while it was 6-2 against both East Bridgford St Peter’s CE Primary from Nottinghamshire and Seamer & Irton Community Primary from Scarborough.
The winning team was Zaid Aldilimi, Taha Shamakh, Malek Shamakh, Patsy Callaghan-Smylie and Liam Joseph-Vaughan.
London Academy won their other two matches 8-0 to finished in second, while third went to East Bridgford thanks to a narrow 5-3 win over Seamer & Irton, in which they came from 2-0 down.
Taha Shamakh said: “It’s amazing, we worked as a team and we tried so hard. I’m leaving the school this year, so it will be a great memory.”
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