England put on a virtually flawless performance at the Primary Schools International in Jersey as they won both team events and a total of six singles medals, including golds for Amber Lemmon and Zaid Aldilimi.
Up against teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Guernsey and hosts Jersey, the girls’ squad of Lemmon, Hannah Saunders, Cindy Xiao and Serene Rahmani-Walentynska had a perfect record of five 10-0 victories as they took the gold medal ahead of Scotland, with Jersey completing the podium.
In the boys’ event, Aldilimi, Li Hao Chen, Rishaan Sawant and Malek Shamakh almost matched that unblemished record, winning 10-0 against Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey and Wales, and dropping just the one match in a 9-1 win over Scotland as Scotland No 1 Dean Robertson defeated Chen.
Scotland finished in the silver medal position and Ireland – whose No 1 Karston Close took Aldilimi to a deciding game – won the bronze.
In the singles, all eight English players won their groups, Xiao beating the Scottish No 1 Kishi Adekola and Shamakh defeating No 1 Irish player Close.
In the girls’ quarter-finals, Saunders beat Adekola 3-0, while Lemmon came through 3-0 against Jersey’s Ella Devlin. Xiao and Rahmani-Walentynska met each other, and it was 3-0 to Xiao.
In the semi-finals, Lemmon beat Xiao 3-1, while Saunders came through against Scotland’s Alexandra Hart in three. The final saw a 3-2 win for Lemmon against Saunders.
In the boy’s quarter-finals, Aldilimi defeated Aiden Ozanne of Guernsey 3-1, Sawant beat Andrew Low of Ireland 3-0 and Shamakh won 3-2 against team-mate Chen.
Sawant and Shamakh met in the semi-finals and it was a 3-1 win for Sawant. In the other semi, Alidlimi overcame Alexander Stepney of Scorland 3-0. The final saw Aldilimi clinch gold with a 3-1 win over Sawant.
So, as well as gold and silver in each singles category, there were bronzes for Xiao and Shamakh.