The 2026 champions and runners-up are up, across pool, golf and Festival Day, with North London taking the first Mahajan Shield.
See the resultsSunday 20 September: the main festival, and the first Mahajan Shield
Festival Day filled Hertfordshire Sports Village from half past eight in the morning. Badminton and table tennis in the halls, youth cricket in the indoor nets, pickleball and tennis on the courts, sevens on the astro outside, and a fitness session that drew a crowd of its own. Trophies went out from five o'clock on the terrace, and the first Mahajan Shield went to North London, collected by Neil Morjaria.
A selection from the day. Click any picture to open the full set, or see every photograph on the Festival Day page.
About the Shield. The Mahajan Shield was not ready in time, so a shield from another competition stood in for it on the day while the real trophy is made. Every check-in at the desk was worth a point, so turning up counted for as much as winning. The winners and the Shield table are on the results page.
Saturday 19 September: eighteen holes, then the trophies
Golf Day opened at eleven with coffee and a roll in the clubhouse, a briefing on handicaps and pairings, and the first tee at 1.06pm. Twenty-eight entries went out in the afternoon, and the field came back to the clubhouse in the evening for the presentation: seven trophies across high and low handicap, nearest the pin and longest drive.
Photographs from Saturday 19 September by Nishit Kotak. Tap any picture to open the full set.
Golf counts towards the Mahajan Shield. Five points for a winner, three for a runner-up, and one for every person who registered. The winners and the updated Shield table are on the results page. Festival Day followed at Hertfordshire Sports Village in Hatfield on Sunday 20 September, where the first Mahajan Shield was presented at 5pm.
Saturday 12 September: where the festival started
The Lohana Sports Festival 2026 opened with pool at the RCT Centre in Harrow. Forty-four entries across three events, five tables, and play from 9:30am. Under 50 singles started in round-robin groups of three so everyone got at least two matches. Over 50 singles and the doubles were straight knockouts, best of three frames early and best of five from the quarter-finals.
Four years of festival photographs on this page and not one of them was pool, because pool is new for 2026. These are the first.
Devani & Patani take the doubles
The Open Doubles final could not be played on the day, so the two pairs met the following week to settle it.
Under 50 and Over 50 singles results are on the results page.
Photographs from Saturday 12 September by Nishit Kotak. Tap any picture to open the full set.
Every frame was a Shield point. Pool was the first event of the Mahajan Shield: five points for a winner, three for a final, one for a semi-final, and one for every person who turns up. The results and the Shield table are on the results page. Golf was played at Stanmore on Saturday 19 September, and Festival Day was at Hertfordshire Sports Village in Hatfield on Sunday 20 September.
Every generation, one place
The Lohana Sports Festival gallery: three days, nine sports, and every generation of the community in the same photographs. The rallies, the huddles, the chai queue and the silverware.
The Lohana Sports Festival gallery, this is what we play for
Photography by Nishit Kotak. Full albums from all three days of the 2026 festival are here.
The Lohana Sports Festival gallery, year by year
Every photograph on this page came from one of five festivals. This is not a highlights reel put together by an agency. It is what sixteen mahajans look like when they get a weekend together, taken by the people who were there playing, watching or running the desk.
You will find pool frames at RCT Hall in Harrow, the first tee at Stanmore Golf Club, and Festival Day at Hertfordshire Sports Village in Hatfield. Badminton, table tennis, squash, tennis, pickleball, football sevens, youth cricket, pool and golf. Presentations, chai queues and a good deal of standing about between matches, which is most of what a festival actually is.
2022 · The first whistle
The first festival brought the mahajans back onto the same field after a long gap. One day, a handful of sports, and a great deal of goodwill. Most of the faces in these early pictures are still turning up.
2023 · Trophies go outdoors
The second year moved the presentations into the open air. Families stayed long after the last match, which is usually when the best photographs happen.
2024 · The next generation shows up
Youth entries grew sharply. The under-14 cricket and the junior categories gave a lot of parents their first reason to stand on a cold sideline, and the albums from this year are full of them.
2025 · One hundred and four trophies
The largest festival so far. One hundred and four trophies went home across eight sports. If you are looking for a picture of someone you know, this is the year with the most of them.
2026 · The Shield arrives
This year adds the Mahajan Shield, where everyone who checks in on the day scores a point for their mahajan, on top of the points for winners, runners-up and semi-finalists. Pool from Saturday 12 September and Golf Day from the 19th are on this page now. Festival Day from the 20th follows within a few days.
Spectators watch free and always have, which is why so many of these pictures are of people who never picked up a racquet. Grandparents on the front row, cousins who came for the food, and at least one dog. They count too.
Photographs go up within a few days of each day of the festival. If you have pictures from any year, the committee would like them, and they will be added with credit. The quickest way to see new ones first is the eNewsletter, which has carried community news since January 2006.
Your picture belongs in next year's wall
Pool was played on Saturday 12 September. Golf at Stanmore is Saturday 19 September and Festival Day at Hertfordshire Sports Village is Sunday 20 September. Entries closed on Sunday 13 September.
Festival day