SSBU: Primary Inter Area Round Up
By Hugh Ainsley
It was the turn of the primary pupils to play in the inter area event at Wishaw on 18 March.
4 teams entered – West, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Lanark. After much discussion it was decided to have 13 rubbers per match with 3 boys singles, 3 girls singles, 2 boys doubles, 2 girls doubles and 3 mixed doubles.
Teams were allowed to bring 5 boys and 5 girls but often 4 & 4 is preferred and today both Edinburgh and West were one girl short and were allowed to concede simply the second girls double.
In round 1 Glasgow beat Lanark 8-5 and Edinburgh beat West 11-1. On to round 2 where Glasgow beat West 11-1 and Edinburgh beat Lanark 9-4 leaving the expected final between Glasgow and Edinburgh. First of all however the match for third where Lanark managed an 8-5 victory over West. In the final Glasgow started one game up with Edinburgh conceding the 2nd girls double.
Edinburgh however got off to a good start by winning the 3 mixed doubles. The boys singles were very tight with Dylan Jia gaining a 22-20 victory against Calum Tsang to give Edinburgh a 4 -1 lead. The second boys single went to Glasgow with Vedant Shukla beating Ziyang Xiao. Nathan Lao gained a third point for Glasgow with an exciting 22-20 victory over Kavin Raman.
On to girls singles and with victories for Emily Jobson and Emma Joshua Edinburgh looked to have the victory secured as they were leading by 6 points to 3. A victory for Zoe Tait in the third girls singles kept Glasgow’s chances alive but they needed to win both boys doubles and the one remaining girls double. Vedant and Calum gained a good 21-11 victory over Dylan and Kavin.
Maoyan Li and Nathan Wong then managed a 21-14 victory over Will Hunter and Ziyang leaving the girls doubles as the decider.
The first girls double had Akshara Chaven and Ares Power of Glasgow taking on Emily Jobson and Emma Joshua from Edinburgh and on this occasion the Glasgow pair managed a 21-17 victory to allow Glasgow to retain the trophy they had won last year.
SSBU have one more age group event for 2009 pupils at the end of April and then the Primary Championships which have been moved to June to avoid a clash with the coronation.