The two defending Premier Division champions have their work cut out to retain their titles when the Youth British Clubs League resumes at the weekend.
Girls’ champions London Academy and Boys’ champions Grantham Academy are both in second placed after the first weekend at Derby Arena in October.
London Academy trail Grantham College by two points – but it was not the leaders who inflicted their one defeat. In fact, the top two shared a 3-3 draw in which Grantham trailed 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 on points with London.
The winning side can only come from among those three – the other three teams are too far adrift to get back into it – and leaders Grantham currently have a sizeable advantage in terms of sets ratio, which may come in handy.
The key matches will be on Saturday evening, when London face Cippenham, and then on Sunday when, first, Cippenham meet Grantham and then, in the afternoon’s final session, London and Grantham face off.
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 on Weekend 1. Lowri Hurd (9) and Hannah Saunders (18) complete the roster.
London Academy have four top-10 players of their own in 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 lead the way from Grantham, with Woodford Wells a further point back.
Barring unusual results in the first couple of rounds on Saturday, it will be the results between those three which dictate the destination of the title.
Weekend 1 saw Fusion beat Grantham 4-2 in the final round of matches, inflicting on the defending champions their only dropped points.
With Fusion and Woodford having drawn 3-3 and Woodford only otherwise dropping points in defeat to Grantham, this trio were a class above the rest.
Woodford and Grantham will be the first to meet, on Saturday evening, followed by Fusion and Woodford on Sunday morning and Fusion and Grantham on Sunday afternoon.
The leaders once more call on England’s Larry Trumpauskas and young Irish talent Peadar Sheridan, who both won eight out of 10 matches last time out. They are backed up by Francesco Bonato, who played on Weekend 1, and have added Rohan Dani, No 6 in the rankings, to their squad.
Grantham have the 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 who is top of the averages, No 4-rated Benjamin Zijadic having won 9/10 on Weekend 1. Adam Alibhai (18) and Sinan Surensoy (39) complete their line-up. eBaTT have No 1 Max Radiven in their ranks and could help determine the outcome of the division.
In all, there are 15 divisions and more than 370 players, across two venues – Derby Arena and the satellite venue at Draycott & Long Eaton TTC.