Seven different schools won titles and only two of last year’s champions successfully retained their crowns on a terrific day of table tennis at the Butterfly School Team Championships in Hinckley.
Grantham College were the team to win two trophies – taking both the Under-19 categories – as the teams celebrated the culmination of a competition that began at local level and encompassed zone and regional finals before the national showpiece.
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Under-19 Boys
Grantham College dethroned the champions of the last two years, Whitgift School, beating them 6-2 in the deciding final tie of the tournament.
The champions pulled away from 2-2, winning the remaining four matches to secure the Norman Cook Cup. It meant that Whitgift player James Smith’s overnight dash from the Italian Junior & Cadet Open was ultimately in vain.
Grantham earlier defeated Bradford Grammar School 8-0 and Ernest Bevin College 7-1. Whitgift recorded the same margin against Ernest Bevin and defeated Bradford 6-2.
Ernest Bevin came out on top against Bradford – the score was 5-3 – to finish in third place.
Grantham’s Olly Tyndall said: “It’s a big achievement after a lot of work and it means quite a lot because we all fought as a team, even when we were behind, and now we’re national champions.
“We knew every game mattered against Whitgift and I think the fact we had to play them last was better for us because we were able to get warmed up.”
Winning team: Sam Chesterman, Andreas Dickman, Hippolyte Levy, Olly Tyndall.
Under-19 Girls
Grantham College got the better of The College of Richard Collyer in a shootout for the title in a category featuring only three teams due to the withdrawal of Okehampton Community College.
Sarah Menghistab and Sophie Barlow both won their two singles against Kate Cheer and Alice Hazell, though the latter pair won the doubles to reduce the deficit to 2-1 and give them hope of turning around the match.
But Menghistab beat Cheer in five (5-11, 11-9, 11-9, 3-11, 11-8) to ensure Grantham would claim the Claud Kichenside Cup, and Barlow then made the final scoreline 4-1 by defeating Barlow, also in five.
Earlier, both teams had beaten Bromsgrove School – Grantham by a 5-0 scoreline and Richard Collyer by a 4-1 margin. Jade Ngan got Bromsgrove’s point by defeating Hazell in three.
For the winners, Barlow said: “It was a struggle at times but we fought hard and had a good rapport. When we lost the doubles we forgot about it and picked ourselves up for the remaining matches.”
Winning team: Sophie Barlow, Sarah Menghistab.
Under-16 Girls
Three matching 6-2 wins clinched the Mick Betts Memorial Cup for Charles Read Academy as they successfully defended their title from last year.
Despite injuries which meant Mollie Patterson and Jodie Norris were unable to complete every match, the Lincolnshire school had enough in hand to finish ahead of Okehampton College.
Raquel Sao Pedro of the winning school said: “We knew all the matches would be at different levels and we would have to adapt to that, but our team spirit helped us through, especially as we had the injuries.”
Okehampton themselves had two 6-2 scorelines – against Wood Green Academy (Wednesbury) and Priory Ruskin Academy (Grantham).
Wood Green finished in third, drawing 4-4 against Priory Ruskin but ending above them by an 18-16 sets margin.
Winning team: Danielle Kelly, Jodie Norris, Mollie Patterson, Raquel Sao Pedro.
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