Five Cippenham players gained player of the match awards as the Club’s three teams completed their Youth British Clubs League season at Derby over the weekend. However, the team results were generally mixed with all three teams holding on to the positions they held at the half way stage in October.

In the Girls Premier Division, the trio of Rachael Iles, Mia Lakhani and Anna Piercey won only one of their five matches but this was good enough to hold on to fourth position. The only victory came in the final match on Sunday afternoon against Belfast-based Ormeau. Mia was adjudged player of the match on this occasion as she and Rachael won all their matches. Earlier in the day it had been Rachael who won her two individual encounters to pick up the award but her team-mates were not able to assist as Cippenham lost 4-2 to the powerful Greenhouse team from London. Saturday’s matches had brought no joy at all as, faced with the top three teams in the country, they lost 1-5 to Draycott and 0-6 to both Grantham College and London Academy.

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The boys' first team could not quite pick themselves up from bottom place in Division 4. William Saint, who had missed the first weekend, made a welcome return to the side and he picked up two player of the match awards. The first of these was in the late Saturday match against Wood Green, won 4-2 by Cippenham and in which George Driscoll and Matt Ley both bear Austin Hibbit to complement Saint’s brace. The other point picked up by Cippenham over the weekend was in the final match against eBaTT 4. Saint again won both his matches and Driscoll beat Samvit Balaji but was unlucky to lose 11-9 in the fifth and deciding game to Noah Bartram. Missing Jamie Woodford from the team, Cippenham’s other three matches ended in defeat, 2-4 to Ormeau, 1-5 to Drumchapel Glasgow and 0-6 to SGS College Bristol.

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The most successful Cippenham team during the weekend was the young boys' second team who managed to retain their second place in a highly competitive Division 7. Bharath Prasanna Kumar scooped two player of the match awards while his younger brother Sai, in the week of his eleventh birthday (in a competition for under-19s!) also was rewarded once. The brothers won one encounter each in the opening 2-4 loss to SGS College Bristol 2 but the team then suffered a 0-6 loss to Fusion 3 who went through the weekend unbeaten. Results then changed for the good as three successive victories secured the runners-up position with ultimately only sets aggregate separating the top three teams. Halton were the first to feel the force, beaten 5-1 with the Prasanna Kumar brothers winning two each aided by one from Louis Alexander. Onto Sunday and Bharath led the way with his team-mates chipping in with one each as south London-based Graham Spicer were beaten 4-2. The brothers again won their matches as the weekend concluded with a 5-1 win over BrumFord 2.