The all island under 10 and under 16 interschool table tennis tournament was held on the 17th, 18th and 19th of October 2015 in the sports complex of S.Thomas College, Mt.Lavinia.

In the under 10 age group, the Royal ‘A’ team,B team and C team participating in the A division,B division and C division respectively. These very young Royal paddlers emerged victorious and were all awarded 3 stars,which is the maximum number of stars that could be awarded and  demonstrated immense talent, courage and unwavering self belief in the process.This sure is a sign of the great things that are to come from the Royal paddlers in the near future.

In the under 16 age group the Royal team fielded 3 teams. In a strategic move, the B team and C team took up the challenge and were entered in the higher divisions, in a bid to upset the more fancied teams.Thus the A team and B team played the A division and and the C team played the B division.

In the B division, the Royal C team were placed in a tough group with both Sussex college A team and Maliyadeva college A team placed in their group. After losing to an experienced Sussex team 3-2, they had to beat Maliyadeva college A team, which too was a big ask. The Royal paddlers beat Maliyadeva A, 3-1.Now they were up against Sussex college again in the semifinals. The Royal paddlers went down to sussex college in the semifinals 3-1 and had to thus settle for 3rd place.sussex college eventually went to win the B division by beating Dharmashoka college,Ambalangoda in the finals 3-0.

In the all important A division everything was up for grabs.Vidyartha college,kandy were firm favorites having won it for the many years consecutively.Yet again the Royal paddlers were placed in tough groups.The Royal B team placed alongside Vidyartha A and a few other teams and the Royal A team placed alongside Dharmashoka A,and Dharmaraja A. But the Royal A team beat both Dharmashoka A and Dharmaraja A, 3-0 thus establishing dominance and firm contention for title. Then the Royal A team beat Vidyartha college B team in the quarter finals 3-0.

Meanwhile,the Royal B team had a tough time having lost to Vidyartha A in their group matches.having muscled out the other teams they had to face Vidyartha A team back again in the semifinals. To the surprise of many spectators, the Royal B team was giving  the Vidyartha A team a run for their money.Though they lost 3-1, it was anybody’s match as some of the fancied  players from Vidyartha college were taken the distance. The determination and self confidence of the Royal B team was quite noteworthy.It was after many years that both the Royal A and B teams were in the semifinals of an A division event.

Meanwhile, the Royal A team were up against the Dharmaraja college A team again in the semifinals. The Royal A beat them 3-0  and were now up against Vidyartha college A team in the finals for the championship.Having last won the under 16 A division in 2006, the Royal paddlers were up for the task. Despite many schools from Kandy cheering against Royal,the Royalists kept the nerve and emerged victorious 3-2 in a very hard fought match where both teams demonstrated their will to win. And thus with this win, the Royal paddlers became the team to beat,inspiration to many young sportsmen and a very good example to show that those who belong at the top never forget their way back up.The Royal college table tennis team was led by Abdur Rahmaan Azeez and was coached by Mr.Wajira Wickramasinghe and Mr.Chandika Kumara.

Thus with the conclusion of the tournament, the Royal paddlers established themselves as a force to reckon and the team to beat.