Article by Donald Pirie

The Scottish Senior Schools Championships took place on Sunday 31 March at Bathgate Academy, there was a total of 11 ASV Academy players taking part.

The event, the culmination of regional qualifiers across Scotland, had over 70 players in total at the final event vying for the six titles on offer, U14, U16 & U18 for both boys and girls, and competition was fierce with some fantastic matches in all events. The top 4 in each event qualify to represent Scotland for the Senior Schools 6-Nation Event in June, with Scotland taking on England, Wales, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey & the Isle of Man.

_{Maja Wojcicka}

In the girls’ events, triple Scottish Champion from only 3 weeks earlier Maja Wojcicka (Turriff Academy) continued her great season by taking the U16 title with a 3-1 victory over Megan Mulhern (Glasgow) in the final.  In the U14’s event, Nikki Mo (Kittybrewster School) also went all the way to the final, a fantastic achievement for 11-year-old Nikki, however No.1 seed and event favourite Nichole Lee (Edinburgh) proved too strong on the day and Nikki had to settle for a Silver medal.

_{Nikki Mo}

Over in the boys’ events, Daniel Tibbetts (Mackie Academy) was top seed and favourite for the U16 title. As expected Daniel sailed through his group and knockout matches to the final, when he encountered Ben Hart (Stirling). This was surely the match of the day and watchers in the hall were enthralled as they saw Daniel come back from dropping the first two sets to level the match at 2-2.  Daniel then went into a 4-1 points lead, but Ben rallied to take the deciding game, and Daniel had to settle for the Silver. Ben Stewart (Banchory Academy) was delighted to claim 4th place in this event while Robbie Martin (Bucksburn Academy) was just behind in 5th.

_{Daniel Tibbetts}

Allan He (Mackie Academy) put in some terrific performances in the U18’s event, with a four set victory over the higher ranked Charlie McGowan (Edinburgh) resulting in Allan securing 4th place.

Unfortunately, there were no top four places in the U14’s with Victor Chen (Robert Gordons School) 5th, Mathew Pszonka (Bridge of Don Academy) 7th and Dean Robertson (Aberdeen Grammar) 8th.

The next event is the GB Primary Schools Championships this month, with good representation in the Scottish team from ASV Academy players, watch this space for an update.