Primary School Championship hailed great success with 97 entries
The final event of the SSBU season was the Primary Championships. These were scheduled to be held at Bells Sports Centre, Perth, but this booking was cancelled by the centre as flood damage has made it unusable. The move to Stirling posed quite a few problems as the primary championships have a large number of spectators as almost all the players have one or more parents present and the bleachers at Perth were ideal for this.
However after some technical issues with the power supply in the hall (needed for computer and printer) the first matches went on court a little later than had been intended at 9.50 a.m. It was quite remarkable that all 97 players entered in the event turned up
and there was not a single walkover in the entire competition.
Boys singles
The boys singles had 62 entries so there were 16 pools. 15 of the seeds won their pools with the remaining 9/16 seed Chris Agnew (Hamilton) only finishing third in his pool relegating him to the consolation event which he won. The next seed to fall was Mikhail Ashraf (G & NS) who lost in the first round of the knock-out to Frank Atkins (Corstorphine). Frank lost to top seeded Yingfan Wang (Buckstone Primary) in the next round but with a 2014 birthday he will surely return as a seeded player next year.The top 8 seeds all reached the quarter finals where Kavin Raman (ESMS) had a 21-19 victory over the higher seeded Kanishk Tata (Cults Primary). It was Kavin’s turn to lose 21-19 in the semi final as 2nd seed James Huang (G & NS) proved just too strong for him. Yingfan went on to take the title with a 21-12 victory in the final.
Girls singles
There were 26 girls in the singles so there were 6 pools. One of the closest matches of the event was in the quarter final where Giselle Lee (ESMS) defeated Anvita Awasthi (Peel Primary) 24-22. Giselle unfortunately had to play top seeded Emily Jobson in the semi, losing 21-14. Second seeded Akshara Chavan came through the early rou nds of the knock out quite easily defeating Annika Sinha (Robert Gordon’s) in the semifinal 21-13. The final was very close changing serve almost every point with Emily eventually taking the title with a 21-17 victory.
Boys doubles
21 pairs contested the boys doubles. All seeded pairs bar 1 safely reached the A knock-out and the top 4 pairs reaching the semi-finals. ¾ seeds Yuanxi Cui & James Taylor (Albyn School) were on top form beating second seeds Aaditya Shah & Kanishk Tata (Cults Primary) in the semi-final and then winning the title with a 21-11 victory over top seeds Aayush Nagdeve & Aarav Sinha (Robert Gordon’s) in the final.
Girls doubles
The girls doubles had only 9 pairs. For the primary schools championships doubles pairs must attend the same school so many of the players were unable to find a partner. The rule is a little unpopular but as these are the school championships it is important that the champions must be from the same school and players are allowed to choose any partner for all other events. The top four pairs reached the semi-finals and the top 2 seeded pairs reached the final where Akshara paired up with Reeya Kukreja to take the title defeating Castletown Primary’s Sophie Mackay & Myah MacLeod 21-18.
With the season over work has already begun on next year’s calendar and the SSBU will be holding their AGM as a zoom meeting on Wednesday 22nd May at 8 p.m. New members of committee or volunteers are always welcome and anyone who wishes just to find out a little about our events is welcome to attend the meeting. Please contact Hugh Ainsley if you wish the link to join the meeting. SSBU wish all players and parents a good summer break and we hope to see you all again in the autumn.