REPORTS

As well as winning these five games, it was by a huge margin as one of the pairs (Manav Krishna and Kian Thomas) had won their first game 21 points to seven.

As the games unfolded, unfortunately, one of the opponent’s players was injured while playing a backhand shot. This resulted in one of Hampton’s players going over to play for the Isleworth team. After each pair had played three games each, it looked like Hampton were cruising ahead, towards a maiden victory.

However, after more than half of the games were played, there was a sudden lack of concentration by Hampton, and with the pairs playing their fifth game, five out of six games were lost. At this point, it could have been anyone’s game as Hampton had won 17 games, and Isleworth 13. If the home side suffered another lapse, the fixture would be lost.

Thanks to an inspirational team talk, the players were charged up going into their final match. Using all the techniques taught by the coaching staff, Hampton crossed the line winning 23 games to 13. The standout performance was Manav Krishna Kallamvelli Vasanth’s pair with Kian Thomas, winning six games out of six. Overall, it was a brilliant set of matches between the two schools, with lessons that everyone could take away from the fixture.