The two defending Premier Division champions will be pushing hard to retain their titles when the Youth British Clubs League resumes this weekend.
Girls champions London Academy and boys champions Grantham Academy are both in second place after the first weekend at the Derby Arena in October.
London Academy are two points behind Grantham College, but it wasn’t the leaders who suffered their only defeat. In fact, the top two shared a 3-3 draw, with Grantham trailing 2-1 and then 3-2 before London rescued the point.
The defeat for London was an emphatic 5-1 at the hands of Cippenham, who finished the weekend in third place, level with London.
The winning side can only come from these three – the other three teams are too far adrift to get back in – and leader Grantham currently has a significant advantage in terms of sets ratio, which could come in handy.
The main matches are on Saturday evening, when London face Cippenham, and then on Sunday, when Cippenham first meets Grantham and then, in the final session of the afternoon, London and Grantham face each other.
Grantham have Ella Pashley (No. 2) and Hannah Silcock (No. 3) at the helm – Silcock (pictured above) the only player to win all 10 matches in Weekend 1. Lowri Hurd (9) and Hannah Saunders (18) complete the selection.
London Academy has four of its own top 10 players: Sophie Barcsai (3), Sienna Jetha (5), Maliha Baig (7) and Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska (10).
Cippenham’s leader is Rachael Iles (7), supported by Mia Lakhani (17) and Alyssa Nguyen (20).
In the Boys’ Premier there are also three teams in the title picture. Fusion led the way from Grantham, with Woodford Wells a further point back.
Barring any unusual results in the first few rounds on Saturday, it will be the results between these three that will determine the destination of the title.
Weekend 1 saw Fusion beat Grantham 4-2 in the final round of play, handing the defending champions their only points lost.
With Fusion and Woodford drawing 3-3 and Woodford otherwise only dropping points in the defeat to Grantham, this trio was a class above the rest.
Woodford and Grantham meet first on Saturday evening, followed by Fusion and Woodford on Sunday morning and Fusion and Grantham on Sunday afternoon.
The leaders are again calling on the English Larry Trumpauskas and the young Irish talent Peadar Sheridan, who both won eight of the ten matches last time. They are joined by Francesco Bonato, who played in weekend 1, and have added No. 6 ranked Rohan Dani to their roster.
Grantham has Nos. 2 and 3 in the rankings – Isaac Kingham and Abraham Sellado respectively – along with Aarav Parihar (15) and Joseph Dennison (26).
Woodford Wells have the player at the top of the averages, Benjamin Zijadic with the number 4 rating, who won 9/10 in weekend 1. Adam Alibhai (18) and Sinan Surensoy (39) complete their line-up. eBaTT has #1 Max Radiven in their ranks and could help determine the outcome of the division.
In total there are 15 divisions and more than 370 players, spread across two locations: Derby Arena and the satellite location at Draycott & Long Eaton TTC.
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