London Academy and Grantham Academy again look strong as they begin the defence of their Youth British Clubs League, Premier Division titles this weekend.

The London side took the girls’ Premier last season and both Sienna Jetha and Maliha Baig are again competing, alongside Sophie Barcsai, who was part of the team on Weekend 2 last season.

Barcsai is fresh from representing Hungary at the recent Europe Youth Top 10, where she finished eighth in the Under-15 competition, and has a dummy rating of 4, meaning London Academy have all three of their team inside the top 10.

Draycott can go one better, with all four of their squad in the top 10. Junior National Champion Anna Green leads their challenge, backed up by Mabel Shute, Naomi Coker and Saskia Key.

Grantham College, who remained unbeaten in finishing second to London last season, feature Jersey’s Hannah Silcock, Ella Pashley and Lowri Hurd of Wales, who are all inside the top 10 as well, so there are set to be plenty of close matches.

In the boys’ Premier, Grantham are now without Toby Ellis, who is no longer eligible, but can still call on Isaac Kingham and the Dennison brothers, Adam and Joseph.

The two teams most likely to wrest the title from Grantham’s grasp – on paper at least – are eBaTT and Fusion, who are stacked with top-10 players.

Under-21 National Cup champion and No 3 rated Ralph Pattison leads eBaTT and is supported by Max Radiven – a recent winner on the WTT circuit – and Patel Janmejay, who has a dummy rating of 8.

Fusion are led by No 2 rated Larry Trumpauskas, with Ivan Khan (also dummy rated at 8) and Rohan Dani as top-10 back-up.

With 14 divisions and around 340 players, it will be another full-on weekend at Derby Arena and satellite venue Draycott & Long Eaton TTC.

Head to TTE.TV for live streaming of selected matches. Further selected matches will be recorded and available to watch on demand next week.

Remember, access to TTE.TV is included free with any Table Tennis England membership – follow the steps in the video below to link a TTE.TV account to your membership.

Results, tables and averages will be updated on TT Leagues throughout the weekend and you can follow all the latest news, views, previews and reports on the VBCL on the British Clubs Leagues Instagram and Facebook channels.

Click below to download the event programme to see the full team line-ups and fixture lists for each division.

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