Another of the sections of the British Clubs League got underway this weekend. The venue was Derby Arena and this time it was the turn of the Youth British Clubs League, renamed this season from Junior British League. Apart from the name, it was the same set-up at the same venue as previous seasons and Cippenham was once again represented by two boys' teams and one girls' team.

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Pride of place goes to the girls' team who were promoted to the Girls' Premier Division, a great achievement for a team who all train locally at Cippenham. Cippenham, who in the past have three times been national champions in this category, have not featured at the highest level since 2011 so this represent a great step forward. They did not disgrace themselves either as, after a torrid Saturday in which they lost heavily to the top three teams, they bounced back to win their two matches on Sunday to finish in a very creditable fourth place , trailing only to three powerhouses in London Academy, Grantham College and Draycott. Rachael Iles finished up winning half of her ten individual matches, while Mia Lakhani won only one less and Anna Piercey contributed one.

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Saturday was a difficult day against many of the top-ranked players in the country. The first match, against Draycott, finished 5-1 in the Derbyshire team's favour. Rachael recorded a great win against her opposing number one player Mabel Shute 3-0 but lost out over five games against Naomi Coker while Mia led Saskia Key 2-1 but ultimately suffered a narrow loss 16-14 in the fifth. The other two matches against Grantham College and London Academy were both lost 6-0 but three times the Cippenham girls took their illustrious opponents to five games after leading 2-0 or 2-1.

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Sunday was a different story altogether. Both Rachael and Mia went through the day unbeaten as their team beat Greenhouse 4-2 and Belfast-based Ormeau 5-1.

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The Cippenham boys' teams were operating lower down the divisions of their league, the first team in Division 4 and the second team in Division 7. The first team had a difficult time in their division and finished the weekend without a win although they did gain one point with a 3-3 draw against eBatt 4. Jamie Woodford was the only player who returned good results and was even awarded the player of the match for his performance in the final match, a 2-4 loss to Wood Green. George Driscoll won once, helped by a concession from his opponent who retired injured, to gain his team that point against Wood Green while Nick Carter and Matt Ley, promoted from the second team for two matches, finished winless. The other match scores were 1-5 against Ormeau and two 0-6 defeats against Drumchapel Glasgow and SGS College Bristol.

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The younger second team, though, went much better and lie in second place in their division after two wins, two draws and a solitary defeat to show for their five matches. Louis Alexander won seven of his ten matches while Bharath Prasanna Kumar weighed in with five out of eight and his 10-years old brother Sai, playing eight years out of his age group, won half of his eight.

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Their weekend did not start well as Halton, from Widnes, ran out 4-2 winners. However, that was the first and last time that the team would taste defeat as they embarked of a four-match unbeaten run, starting with a 4-2 victory over Graham Spicer. Bharath was rested for this match, but Louis, player of the match, steered his team to victory with help from a win each from Matt Ley and Sai. After this, Matt was promoted to the first team and Louis and the Prasanna Kumar brothers played throughout. The third match on Saturday produced an even better result, 5-1 against Fusion 3, with Louis once again the player of the match. Bharath also picked up a brace albeit, three of Cippenham's individual wins each took five games to complete.

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Sunday 's matches both produced 3-3 draws, against SGS College Bristol 2 and BrumFord 2 with all three Cippenham players winning a match apiece while the opposition number one players remained unbeaten.

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