In the history of the NZ Secondary Schools Table Tennis Championships, this is the first time a school has won both the Boys' and Girls' national titles!

2017 has been a hugely successful year for Burnside High Table Tennis. As captain of the Boys' A team, I have been privileged to be part of this experience.

After a prolonged absence from the National Secondary Schools' Championships, Burnside High made a return to the tournament. This year, the Girls' and Boys' A teams travelled to compete in the 3-day tournament in Palmerston North. Both teams reached the finals with relative ease. The Girls' team continued their momentum through to the Girls’ grade finals, winning their maiden national title with a 4-2 effort against MacLean's College. The Boys' team, however, were faced with the more demanding task of beating a strong Auckland Grammar outfit in the Boys A grade, who were favourites to win the tournament. Despite a loss in the first match, the boys stringed together four close wins in a row to upset Auckland Grammar and also win our first national title. Remarkably, it was also the first instance of a school winning both the Boys' and Girls' teams title in the same year. To cap off a memorable trip, Avon Liu and Jiayi Zhou from the Girls' team also enjoyed personal success, winning the U19 and U15 national individual titles respectively on the last day of the tournament. Special thanks to Mr Han (Soo Jin’s Dad), who accompanied the team to Palmerston North as Coach/Manager.

Nine teams were entered into the weekly Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Table tennis competition this year in Terms 2 and 3. All the players enjoyed their matches and competed well over the course of the competition. The competition finished with the Boys' A team placing first and the Girls' A team placing second, losing to the Boys’ team in the final. This marks the third consecutive year that the Boys' team have taken out the title.

Increased interest in Table Tennis at Burnside High has also prompted the installation of four outdoor table tennis tables on the school grounds, thanks to some generous funding from the school. The tables have proved hugely popular and have been used to full capacity almost every lunchtime.

On behalf of all the players, we would lastly like to thank Mrs Taylor for her continued support and coordination of Table Tennis at Burnside.

Alexander Zhou