Belair, Manchester in finals

Following the completion of the fixtures in the Central Zone for Under-19 and Under-16 girls on Monday in the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) table tennis competition, Belair Academy and Manchester High topped the respective categories to advance to the rural finals.

In their Under-19 match, defending national champions Glenmuir blanked visitors Manchester 3-0 to finish with six points, two less than Belair, which had already secured maximum eight points to top the zone and qualify for the final.

Manchester finished third with four points.

In the Under-16 segment, Glenmuir defeated Manchester 3-1 in a first-round game, which was continued after it was stopped in the fourth match at Manchester because of a power outage.

Manchester then turned the tables, beating Glenmuir 3-1 in the return encounter, the last match on the fixtures. Both Glenmuir and Manchester ended with seven points each, and DeCarteret on four points.

With Glenmuir and Manchester each winning by 3-1 scores against each other, games had to be counted to place the teams. Manchester totalled 14 wins to Glenmuir's 13 and progressed to the final, which will be played on Tuesday, March 16 at Manchester High.

Second place

Glenmuir, who placed second in both categories, qualified for both semi-finals.

In the fourth match played on Monday, Wolmer's Boys' edged St George's College 3-2 in under-16 action.

This win lifted Wolmer's Boys' to second place on 10 points in group two, four behind reigning national champions, Kingston College, on 14 points.

They finished ahead of Ardenne (six points), Wolmer's Boys' (five) and Meadowbrook (three) points.

The top three finishers will progress to semi-finals.

Rural competitions

Meanwhile, semi-finals in the rural competitions will take place tomorrow at Dinthill, starting at 9:30 a.m. Second-place teams in all the zones will also play off in an attempt to qualify for the finals.

In Boys' Under-19, Manchester, St Mary Technical, St Thomas Technical and Knox will play in a round-robin format, with the top two finishers advancing to the finals.

Glenmuir and Titchfield will oppose each other in both the girls' Under-19 and Under-16 divisions, with the winner from each category progressing to the finals.

Titchfield's Under-16 boys have already booked their place in the semi-finals and will face either Belair, Manchester or DeCarteret.