After a lengthy hiatus brought on by the end of the table tennis season, it was time for many players to dust off their bats and return to the Sports Centre for the 2025 table tennis Cuppers semi-finals and finals. The first two rounds had been played in the penultimate week of Lent term, and as the players filed into Studio 2, many of them declared that this was the first time they had played since then. This rustiness made the afternoon of matches all the more thrilling - in a game so dependent on agility, technique, and tactics, a lack of match practice certainly could cause some unexpected results.

The semi-final matches were Girton versus Christ’s and Downing 1 versus Magdalene. However, Magdalene were going in disadvantaged, being a player down due to their third seed being injured, meaning Downing only had to win two matches to secure their place in the final. The first match-up was between Raghav Misra (Magdalene) and Ray Yan (Downing). The game was a hard-fought tussle, with the sets yo-yoing between the two players. Whilst Yan came out attacking strongly, pushing Misra right into the barriers with his forehand topspin, Misra fought back intensely, going 8-1 up in the second set, and eventually securing victory in it. This fightback continued until the tie-breaking fifth set, in which Yan clinched the win. After the match, Misra joked that the “table seemed to be getting shorter and longer” during it, as Yan was “getting the edge at very crucial points”.

“[the] table seemed to be getting shorter and longer’”

In the meantime, Downing’s Luke Hodgson had been in control throughout his match against Magdalene’s Jiheng Li. Hodgson’s tactical play meant he emerged the winner 3-1, and with that Downing were through to the final, and the 2024 table tennis Cuppers champions were dethroned.

On the other side of the studio, the Girton versus Christ’s matches provided ample drama. The CUTTC men’s captain Nick Miller (Girton) won all three of his matches, being dominant in his rallies, and forcing his opponents to move around the table.

However, the most excitement came from Christ's player Cheuk Fai Ng’s matches against the remaining two Girton players. First up against him was Ting-Yu Li, and immediately it was evident that this was a different kind of game to the rest – the play consisted of more touch shots and close to the net play, with many mistakes happening in trying to open up. The match was excruciating, with the entire studio watching on as they went into the fifth set, having ended the first four tied at 2-2. Everyone’s breath hitched when they reached deuce, followed by a missed forehand by Fai Ng. Yet ultimately, it was a 13-11 win to Fai Ng, leaving the overall match score at 4-4.

“Everyone’s breath hitched when they reached deuce”

All eyes were back on Fai Ng as his match between Leander Von Schonfeld became the decider for which team was to qualify for the final. The game was messy, with some of the onlookers keeping a count of the number of shots scraping the net or hitting the edge of the table (killing the spin and making them very difficult to return). The nail-biting play culminated in a victory for Von Schonfeld, thus allowing Girton to progress through to the finals.

Whilst Von Schonfeld took a small break before he commenced his next match, the Downing squad were making the calculated decision of who was most likely to defeat Miller, and how this should affect their playing order. This tactic very nearly proved successful for them: despite Miller’s victory against Yan being 3-0, two of the sets had gone to deuce, and Thomas Chen’s tricky playing style meant that Miller was forced to run around the playing court. This left him fatigued for his final match against Hodgson, evident by his mid-match exclamation: “I’m so tired!”. However, Miller found a second wind in the tie-breaking fifth-set, and finished his gruelling cuppers campaign undefeated.

The matches weren’t so favourable for Girton’s Li, who lost all her matches against Downing’s side, despite some very close points and potential comeback moments. She commented on the different playing styles of men and women, and how the adjustment was difficult considering all BUCS matches and Varsity matches she played were against female opponents. Ting-Yu Li was the only woman player out of the final four teams, and in the whole Cuppers competition there were just three women in total, so this is a bigger issue to be addressed.

Once again, after one win and one loss, Von Schonfeld was involved in the final deciding match, but this time it was against Yan. Both teams cheered on their respective player, and the tides seemed to be in Girton’s favour as Von Schonfeld comfortably took the first set. Yet this momentum quite quickly swung the other way, with Yan emerging victorious in the remaining three sets of the game. With his 3-1 win, Downing 1 were crowned 2025 table tennis Cuppers champions.

Although very gracious after such a tight defeat, Miller pointed out that Downing’s team had drafted in a coach for their college training session the night before Cuppers – something which their large budget allowed for. He likened the difference in funding between Downing and other college teams as “equivalent to the funding difference between the Prem and the EFL”. With some colleges not even having a table tennis table to practise on, this is indicative of the extent of the impact which college support can have on the quality and results of college sports teams.