Leicestershire Juniors brought 5 teams to the Midland Team Championships, that were hosted by Notts at Nottingham High School on Saturday 8th February.
In the U11s (8 boards), Leicestershire finished 3rd on 9.5 pts behind Warwickshire (18 pts) and Notts (12pts). In an all-play-all format Leics were just beaten by Notts in the 1st round (3.5 – 4.5) but won against Northants in the 2nd round (5-3). Warks proved a tough assignment in the 3rd round and the team were well beaten 1-7. Madhav Eradi and Arav Ajaykumar both won their games in 1st and 2nd rounds.
In the 4 board U11 Girls event, Leicestershire secured 3rd place on 3.5pts behind Notts (8.5) and Warks (6). In an all play all format Leicestershire lost to both those counties but drew 2-2 against Northants in the 2nd round. On top board Lindsay Pyun won her games against Notts and Northants.
A developing U9 team (8 boards) finished in 4th on 4pts in a tough section, with Shashank Prasanth excelling to record 2 wins out of 3.
A U11 and U9 B team played the Notts B team in those two age groups. Notts, with a much larger pool of players unsurprisingly won both matches, but it was good to have so many Leicestershire players making their debut playing for the county. Martino Cresciani-Lombardo and Aman Das both recorded 2 wins out of 3 for the U11 B team and Sophia Hilmi won two of her games for the U9 B team.