The Academy has joined the Cambridgeshire Schools League, entering two sides this season. Teams consist of 6 players, who play four games each afternoon, and all games are played at the Perse Upper School in Hills Road.
The 2024/25 dates are Sunday 6 October, Sunday 1 December, Sunday 26 January and Sunday 2 March.
2024/25 Season
With a record 36 teams in the League this season it has been split into two divisions, with both the ALCA teams in the first division. After two rounds the A team is handily placed on 33 points, just one and a half points behind joint leaders Cambourne Village College and Chess & Go. ALCA A have already defeated both these teams and have also played many of the other strong teams, so have the opportunity to score heavily in the remaining rounds. Thomas Sha (5.5/7) and Ethan Liu (6.5/7) are both unbeaten on the top two boards, whilst Neel Mishra (7/7) and Guy Parsons (6/7)have also done really well.
ALCA B was always going to find the first division tough, not helped by playing the leading teams early on. They currently stand eleventh out of 16 teams with 14.5 points. But they’ve fought really hard and taken valuable points off the A team’s rivals, so well done. Particular credit goes to Minh Nguyen (3/3 on the second Sunday) and Elliot Lingard (2.5/4 on the first Sunday).
Report on 2023/24 Season
The opening round, early in the autumn term, was held before the Academy was properly running so we joined in at the second round. In total 18 Academy players took part over the three rounds we played. The A team was drawn from Ben Varea, Tommy Mole, Gabriel Varea, Ethan Wood, Ray Lee, Neel Mishra, Guy Parsons, Youssef Younes, Edward Griffin and Bluebelle Campbell. The B team was represented by Reuben Webster, Neel Mishra, Edward Griffin, Benjamin Tsang, Ziyu Ong, Tom Dunne, Ruben Emerson, Walt Dean, Akshayaa Balasubramanian, Nok Hoi Chan and Younes Kousksou.
As we had missed the opening round of matches we were paired against the weaker teams in the second round with the result that both teams won all their matches convincingly. Gabriel, Ethan and Neel scored 4/4, and Ben and Ziyu 3/3.
The second round in January was restricted to three rounds because of time. The A team started with two good wins before coming up against the eventual winners, King’s A. Our leading points scorers in this round were Guy and Bluebelle (2/2) and Gabriel and Ethan (2/3). The B team unfortunately had a bye in one round, but won both matches played with Ruben, Reuben and Akshayaa winning both their games.
We expected a tough time in the final four rounds, played at the beginning of March, as both teams were now in the top half of the table. The A team did really well to beat the second-placed St Faith’s, then lost narrowly to Cambourne Village College before finishing strongly with 5-1 victories over both JUVFC and the Perse School. The B team, regrettably, had a walkover in their first match before losing their last three matches against the schools that finished second, third and fifth.
The final results showed King’s School comfortable winners on 74.5 points. ALCA A were eighth on 49.5 points and ALCA B fifteenth on 37. I have little doubt that the A team would have been battling for the silver medals and the B team would have been in the top half of the League were it not for missing the first round of matches. The highest scorers for ALCA were Guy 8/9, Ethan 8/11, Neel 6.5/9, Gabriel 6/7, Ben 6/9, Ruben & Reuben 4/4 and Youssef 4/6.
Mauricio Varea and Paul Kemp