Tuesday night’s Varsity clash saw UCL Women’s Table Tennis enjoy a swift and decisive 8-1 win against their KCL counterparts, with the Purple men’s side losing 7-1 against a strong King’s squad.
This year’s Varsity clash was highly anticipated – all of last year’s UCL Varsity Table Tennis players have since graduated, leaving UCL to enter the series with a completely fresh squad.
Speaking to The Cheese Grater ahead of the game, women’s Varsity captain Heiley Wong noted this as “both a challenge and a great opportunity. We hope to carry on the winning momentum from last year and show that even with a new lineup, we can still perform well.”
UCL women began the proceedings with convincing victories of 3-0 and 3-1 respectively, securing two points and setting a winning precedent for the rest of the evening.
Meanwhile, Table Tennis Club President Harry Yip came back from 2-0 down against KCL’s Borui Chen to win 3-2 and secure the only point of the evening for UCL men.
A slew of unlucky results for UCL men followed, including a thrilling but ultimately disappointing 3-2 loss for UCL’s Oscar Gao against Govind Shah.
Thankfully, UCL Women continued their winning ways, losing just one set from nine and securing a convincing win overall. Their key to success was adaptability —- UCL Women proved adept at adjusting to different styles of play, undoing a lacklustre King’s side through strong offensive play and patient defence.
On the other hand, KCL Men were dominant throughout, with their performances confirming this year’s Men’s Varsity title.
Drama ensued towards the back end of the evening, with uncertainty over who would be taking home the trophy.
This year is the first in which the men’s and women’s fixtures have been split into two separately listed Varsity events, but with only one trophy and wins for both UCL and KCL, the evening ended in uncertainty as to who would be awarded it.
Ultimately, the clubs made the decision to “‘share”’ the trophy, with this year’s engraving to carry the names of both KCL Men and UCL Women.