BUTTERFLY NATIONAL SCHOOL TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS – 2009
A packed Hinckley Leisure Centre witnessed five schools crowned Butterfly National School Team Champions at the English Schools’ Table Tennis Association National Finals staged on Saturday 28th March 2009. This event was the culmination of County, Zone and Regional Finals previously held throughout the country this school year.
Filton College, Bristol, Avon (Tom Maynard, Scott Crawford, Lloyd Gregory, Myles Collins, Andy Smith) retained their Under 19 Boys’ title narrowly winning 5 – 3 against West London Academy who pushed them hard with all individual matches going into the fourth or fifth game.
In the Girls’ Under 19 Championships, Kesteven & Grantham Girls’ School, Lincolnshire (Emily Bates, Dominique Jones, Jade Buttegieg-Mitchell, Alison Nix, Emily Roys) had comfortable wins in all three matches. This is a return to winning ways for KGGS which they enjoyed in the late 80s when they won triple championships at this level.
New champions emerged in the Under 16 Boys’ event and, although pushed hard by Lawrence Sheriff 5 – 3, Springwell Community School, Staveley, Derbyshire (Daniel Lowe, Sean Cullen, Josh Packwood, Ronan Kelly) took the Leach-Carrington Cup and were worthy champions in this closely fought event.
After several years in reaching these finals, Morpeth School recorded their first National Team Championship victory. Peniel Academy gave them a hard match in the Girls’ Under 16 event but the Tower Hamlets team (Sally Hoang, Chantal Wilson, Majada Yasmin, Sayeeda Miah) were eventual 5 – 3 winners.
Peniel Academy, Brentwood, Essex added to their impressive championship tally, which goes back to 1989, by taking all four Under 13 and Under 11 titles. The Under 13 Boys’ (Jared Patel, Alex Holland, Nathaniel Atter, Matthew Callcut, Joel Mussell) dropped only three games in their matches, but they were bettered by the Under 13 Girls’ (Ify Okafor, Estelle Purkis, Jessica Whealy, Francesca Barnes) who won all their matches 8 – 0 against good opposition.
The Under 11 events featuring teams who had all qualified for previous national finals found the Academy sides too strong. Peniel boys (Hilkiah Adebanjo, Damola Fenuyi, Denis Danilov, Christian Gibson, Ben Holland) were easy winners as were the girls (Lydia Anslow, Ella Patel, Kristelle Brook, Holly Van Haver, Emily Hodges) who dropped only one game all day.
The standard of play shows schools’ table tennis to be in good shape and, with many events organised for the first time this year by Competition Managers in School Sport Partnerships throughout the country leading into ESTTA tournaments, will become even stronger in future years.
Presentations were made by Alan Ransome OBE, Managing Director of Ransome Sporting Goods, the major sponsor of ESTTA and sole supplier of Butterfly equipment in the UK. He was joined by Alex Murdoch, Chairman of the English Table Tennis Association with other colleagues from the ETTA and ESTTA.
To see the complete group results for each competition click as required
| Under 19 Boys | ||
| Under 19 Girls | ||
| Under 16 Boys | ||
| Under 16 Girls | ||
| Under 13 Boys | ||
| Under 13 Girls | ||
| Under 11 Boys | ||
| Under 11 Girls | ||
