Leamington and Warwick youngsters feature at County schools

The under 11 girls medals ceremony with Isabelle Sandu on the left and Kyra Fernandes on the right

placeholder image — The under 11 girls medals ceremony with Isabelle Sandu on the left and Kyra Fernandes on the right

Youngsters from Leamington and Warwick enjoyed a successful day at the Warwickshire Schools Individual events.

For table-tennis purposes Warwickshire includes Birmingham and Coventry and the competition attracted a large entry.

The under 11 girls competition for Y6 and under saw 15 girls line up in 3 groups. Isabelle Sandu (Y6) of Brookhurst School won group 2 with a maximum 4 wins. Kyra Fernandes (Y5) of St Anthony’s RC school, 3 wins, was the runner-up, just edging Alice Eriksson (Y4) of Milverton School, 2 wins, by virtue of an 11-9 in the 5th scoreline in their individual match.

Isabelle and Kyra were joined in the quarter-finals by Elsa Green of St Peter’s RC school (Y5) who topped her group with 4 wins out of 4. All three won their quarter-finals with Elsa and Kyra bowing out in the semis and Isabelle taking the runners-up medal.

There was an equally large entry in the under 11 boys competition. Alfie Blanchard of Park Hill School in Kenilworth won his group of 5 and then came through the quarter and semi- finals to reach the Final where he lost to Luca Mata.

Shaneli Wickramanayaka of Bilton School competed in the under 13 girls and was another to claim the runners-up medal.

Campbell Turner of North Leamington was 4th of a strong group of 6 in the Boys under 13 competition. Thomas Pinngton of Campion School was second in his group and qualified for the knock-outs. After winning through his first round Thomas went out in the quarter-finals to the eventual winner, Nokulus Lam.. Thomas Moyle of Bilton Grange won his group and his quarter-final before also losing to Lam in the semi-final.

Two brothers competed in the under 16 boys. Alfie Green of North Leamington school had two good wins in his qualifying group but just missed out on the knock-outs. His brother Otis of KES reached the semi-final.

In the Girls under 19 event Susie Swan of Myton finished as runner-up and Keerthi Bakthisaran of Shottery third. Susie will go on to compete in the National Schools event in April.

The one local Champion was Starry Sheung of KES Stratford who defeated Warwick’s Rex Wong in the under 19 boys final.