SECURITY Professionals Company (Securipro Ltd) has come on board as sponsors for this year’s Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Table Tennis Competition, which serves off today with five urban and six rural-area matches starting at 2:30 pm.

In both sections, home-and-away preliminary round matches will be played until close to the end of February in four categories — boys and girls Under-19, boys and girls Under-16. After the preliminary rounds, urban and rural champions will be crowned after which, the two sets of champions will face off to decide the All-Island champions.

Kingston College (KC) are three-time urban and All-Island Under-19 champions; Ardenne are two-time urban and All-Island Under-19 girls champions; Titchfield Under-16 boys are two-time rural and All-Island champions, and Campion are defending urban and All-Island Under-16 girls champions.

Last year Belair won the rural boys Under-19, Manchester won the rural girls Under-19, St Jago won urban boys Under-16, and Titchfield won rural girls Under-16.

This year’s list of entrants include four rural newcomers in Knox, May Day, McGrath and Westwood, and two urban newcomers in Jonathan Grant and St Mary’s College.

A total of 18 urban-area schools and 18 rural-area schools are down to compete in the Securipro/ISSA Table Tennis Competition.

Urban teams are divided into groups with the top two teams from each group going to semis.

In the boys Under-19, there are nine teams divided into three groups with Group One having KC, Norman Manley and Jonathan Grant, Group Two having Jamaica College (JC), St Jago and St George’s College, and Group Three having Wolmer’s, Hillel and Campion.

In the girls Under-19, there are six teams divided into two groups with Wolmer’s, Hillel and Norman Manley in Group One, and St Andrew, Meadowbrook and Immaculate in Group Two.

The boys Under-16 will have 14 teams placed into three groups. Group One has KC, Gaynstead, Norman Manley, Jonathan Grant and St Mary’s College; Group Two has JC, St Jago, St George’s, Bridgeport and Ardenne; and Group Three has Wolmer’s, Hillel, Campion and Ascot.

In the girls Under-16, eight teams are divided into two groups. Group One has Campion, Wolmer’s, Hillel and Ascot, and Group Two has Immaculate, Ardenne, St Andrew and St Mary’s College.

The rural-area category will have teams divided into zones.

The Western Zone has Cornwall College and Green Pond, with both teams playing boys Under-19 and Under-16.

The Central One Zone has Manchester, deCarteret, Glenmuir and Knox, with Manchester and deCarteret having all four teams; Knox having both boys teams only, and Glenmuir having all teams except girls Under-19.

The Central Two Zone has Belair, Cross Keys, Munro and May Day, with Cross Keys having all four teams, Belair all teams except girls Under-19, Munro both boys teams, and May Day both Under-16 teams only.

The North Eastern Zone will have St Mary High, Dinthill, Guy’s Hill and McGarth, with St Mary High and Dinthill having all four teams, McGarth both Under-16 teams only, and Guy’s Hill boys Under-19 only.

The Northern Zone has St Hilda’s and Westwood, each with both girls teams, and the Eastern Zone has Titchfield and Port Antonio High, with each having all four teams.

Today’s urban matches boys Under-16

KC vs St Mary’s College

Norman Manley vs Gaynstead

JC vs Bridgeport,

St George’s vs Ardenne

Hillel vs Ascot

Rural matches

Belair vs May Day in boys Under-16

Cross Keys vs Munro in boys Under-19 and Under-16

St Mary High vs McGarth in boys and girls Under-16

Dinthill vs Guy’s Hill in boys Under-19

(Home teams named first)