Battle will commence at the weekend when more than 270 teams will compete in the Butterfly School Team Championships Zone Finals.
This English Schools’ Table Tennis Association annual event is staged in eight zones at venues throughout the country.
Reigning champions from five schools will be defending their titles:
- Harefield Academy (London West) – Under-19 Girls
- St Mary’s College (Humber) – Under-16 Boys
- Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School (Lancashire) – Under-16 Girls
- The Park School (Dorset) – Under-11 Boys
- Great Wood Primary School (Lancashire) – Under-11 Girls
The first stage is the Zone Finals, with the winners going through to the Regional Finals, with places st stake in the Butterfly National Finals at the ‘new’ Hinckley Leisure Centre on March 25, 2017.
This year, for the first time, a decision was taken to organise the Under-19 Girls’ Championship in a two-a-side format as entry had reached an all-time low of only five competing schools in 2016. Twenty schools have entered this year’s event – great news! Hopefully, this will encourage others to enter in future years. It is also pleasing to note that 36 schools, new to this level of competition, will be taking part in the Championships.
Click here to see a list of all Zone finalists