Defending champions London Academy girls and Grantham Academy boys lead the way in the Premier Division after Weekend 1 of the Youth British Clubs League.

Around 340 players were in action across 14 divisions at Derby Arena and satellite venue Draycott & Long Eaton TTC.

The Team of the Weekend awards went to Cleeve Park (girls) and Joola Plymouth (boys), while Player of the Weekend was awarded to Millie Noble of Draycott in the girls and Toby Caldwell of Ormeau II in the boys.

Selected matches from the weekend were live-streamed and are now available to watch on demand at TTE.TV. Further selected matches will follow.

Remember, access to TTE.TV is free with all types of Table Tennis England membership. Click here to watch an instruction video on how to link your membership.

Girls’ divisions

London Academy defeated closest rivals Grantham College in the final round to open a gap between the two at the top of the Premier Division.

London had arrived at the clash on the back of two 6-0 and two 5-1 victories, while Grantham had three 6-0 wins and a 4-2 success against Draycott. Grantham trailed the latter 2-1 and needed a comeback 3-2 (4-11, 10-12, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7) win by Hannah Silcock over Anna Green to level at 2-2 before they went on to win.

The meeting between the top two was also 4-2, although London were never behind. Sophie Barcsai beat Ella Pashley in three, but Silcock levelled for Grantham in three against Sienna Jetha.

A pair of wins for Maliha Baig, either side of Barcsai’s second victory – inflicting an only defeat of the weekend on Silcock – ensured London could not be beaten, though Grantham had the last word as Lowri Hurd defeated Jetha 3-2 (11-13, 11-3, 13-11, 5-11, 11-7).

All of which means a two-point lead at the top of the table going into weekend two in February. Draycott are two points further back.

In the averages, Baig and Barcsai had perfect 100% records from the full 10 matches, one better than Silcock.

London Academy II lead Division One, though it is a lot tighter than the Premier. The Academy are unbeaten but won only twice to lead by a point from Draycott II and Birmingham TT Academy – the latter also unbeaten but with four draws out of five.

No fewer than seven of the nine matches on Day 1 were draws, including all three in Round 2, and the opening-round match between London and Birmingham, which both sides led at some point before London rescued a point when Gene Lam beat Charlotte Wong in four in the final match.

There was only one further draw on Sunday, in the meeting between Draycott and Birmingham. The latter had drawn every match up to that point but finished with a 4-2 win over Northern Girls. London made sure of the divisional lead in the final match, defeating Draycott 4-2 by winning the last two matches.

Despite all the teams taking points off each other, Alisha Dutta of London Academy finished with eight wins out of eight to top the averages. Player of the Weekend Millie Noble played up a division in one tie, winning both her matches.

London Academy III made it a superb weekend across the club as they top Division Two by three points ahead of Drumchapel Glasgow.

London were unbeaten, though they fell short of a 100% record when Draycott III came back from 3-1 down to force a draw, Violet-Lily Marquis defeating Chi Yin Pang 3-2 (11-6, 11-2, 9-11, 11-13, 11-8) and Connie Dumelow beating Assil Sarri 3-1 (11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9).

London’s efforts were underpinned by Soraya Rahmani-Walentynska’s perfect record pf 10 victories, while Draycott’s Marquis is also on 100%, from eight matches. Pang’s reverse to Marquis was her only defeat in 10.

Cleeve Park top Division Three with a 100% record from five matches, dropping only four individual matches in the process. They sit two points clear of Draycott IV in the eight-team division.

The top two are yet to meet – Draycott dropped their points in a 5-1 defeat by Ellenborough in Round 3.

Three players have 100% records from eight matches – Cleeve Park duo Calina Dawson and Chloe Evans and Catherine Lv of Draycott.

Boys’ divisions

Champions Grantham Academy are top of the Premier Division but only by the narrowest of margins from eBaTT.

Both teams won three and drew two matches and have an identical 22-8 record in sets. Grantham hold the lead by a game ratio of 74-32, compared with eBaTT’s 73-35.

Fusion are two points behind the leading two, and they were the first team to get anything off the top two, with a 3-3 draw against Grantham in Round 3. Grantham lost the first two matches in the fifth but hit back to lead 3-2 overall before Ivan Kahn sealed a point for Fusion with a defeat of Joseph Dennison.

Grantham and eBatt met in Round 4 and eBatt led 2-0 and 3-2, with a double for Max Radiven. Abraham Sellado secured a point for Grantham by defeating Patel Janmejay in three.

Completing a trio of drawn matches between the top three sides, Fusion and eBaTT shared a 3-3 scoreline in the final round. Fusion twice came from behind to lead 3-2, but Radiven’s win over Francesco Bonato secured a point for eBaTT.

That win saw Radiven take his place at the top of the averages with nine wins out of 10.

eBaTT II do lead the way in Division One, however, two points clear of Kingfisher. The leaders had four victories and one draw, which came against Urban in Round 2.

Having lost the opening two matches in a fifth, eBaTT hit back to lead  3-2, but could not complete the turnaround as Pablo Ramirez Rioja bagged a point for Urban thanks to a 3-1 (8-11, 14-12, 14-12, 11-7) win over Ben Levi.

eBaTT’s match-up with Kingfisher came in the opening round and they won it 4-2 as Ben Dunkley picked up a double, including a good 3-2 (8-11, 12-10, 11-13, 11-8, 13-11) win over Harry Randall.

Kingfisher’s only other dropped point was a 3-3 draw with Urban, Randall securing that point in the fifth against Sebastian Hathway.

Both Randall and Dunkley won nine of their 10 matches to hold the best records of the regular players in the division.

Woodford Wells and eBaTT III are both unbeaten in Division Two, but it is Woodford who hold a one-point lead thanks to four wins.

The top two met in Round 2 and it was a 3-3 draw. eBaTT led 2-0 but saw Woodford hit back to lead 3-2, Sinan Surensoy notching a double. But eBaTT secured a point thanks to Toby Harwood’s win in four over Aarav Parihar.

The other dropped point for eBaTT was against BrumFord on Sunday morning – Harry Chivers winning from 2-1 down against Nishil Shah in the final match to notch the point for BrumFord.

Surensoy’s record of nine victories from 10 matches was enough to see him atop the averages.

Mid-Ulster were perfect in Division Three, winning all five matches for the loss of only four individual ties.

They lead Crosby High by two points, with Crosby’s only dropped points coming in the form of a 5-1 defeat to Ulster on Sunday morning.

Leading the charge for Mid-Ulster was Aedan McGivern, who had a perfect 10 to top the averages, just one win ahead of team-mate Ben Watson and Crosby’s Fraser Massey.

Drumchapel Glasgow have a three-point lead in Division Four and are unbeaten, with four wins and a draw.

The draw came in their very first match, against eBaTT IV – but victories over Ormeau and SGS College Bristol saw Drumchapel lead those two teams in the league table, with eBaTT a further point back in fourth.

Of the regular players in the division, Ben Hart and Joe Mulhern both won nine out of 10 for the leaders.

Division Five is led by Brighton, who are unbeaten with four wins and a draw. That is enough to put them two points clear of Crusaders.

Brighton’s dropped point was not against their nearest rivals but against Urban II, for whom Kanayo Onuma sealed the point with a 3-2 (11-5, 10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8) win over Spike Ward.

The top two players in the averages both won nine out of 10 – Brighton’s Ryan Goodier and Crusaders’ Shing Him Yuen.

The picture is similar in Division Six, where Waterside have four wins and a draw to lead Britannia by two points.

The draw was in the final round as they came from 2-1 and 3-2 down against BATTS. Thomas Agombar won the all-important final match for Waterside, against Ezra Darley.

Alexander Graham won all 10 of his matches for Britannia to lead the averages by one victory, ahead of Jared Hon or Waterside.

BrumFord II are top of Division Seven and unbeaten, with their record of three wins and two draws seeing them two points clear of Cippenham II and Halton.

BrumFord won all three matches on Saturday and then drew 3-3 with Fusion II and with Cippenham on Sunday. They led Fusion 3-1 but needed to come from 3-2 down to Cippenham, Gopal Rathmore securing the point by beating Saisurya Prasanna Kumar in the final match.

BrumFord’s Omar Wasi is top of the averages, having won all eight of his matches.

The is a two-way tie at the top of Division Eight, where both Jersey and Ormeau II have four wins and a draw to lead the pack by four points.

Jersey are in the lead on sets difference and they were never behind in their drawn match with Ormeau, winning three matches in the fifth, including Theo De Poerck’s fine 3-2 (1-11, 6-11, 16-14, 11-9, 11-8) win over Karsten Close which put them 3-2 up. But Toby Caldwell beat Callum Allaway to clinch a draw for Ormeau.

That left Caldwell with a record of eight wins out of eight, and he tops the averages alongside Harry Street of Worthing, who has an identical record. De Poerck won 9/10.

The eight-team Division Nine is headed by London Academy II, who won all five matches with only five individual defeats on the way.

Ackworth II are second, two points behind, though the top two are yet to meet. Ackworth’s defeat came against BATTS II on Sunday afternoon.

Three players won all six of their matches in the division – London Academy duo Connor Godley and Yacoub Rahmani-Walentynska and Ackworth’s Alfie Mawson.