The 2026 Lohana Sports Festival is done, and North London took the first Mahajan Shield. See the champions and the photographs from all three days.
See the resultsSee the photographs
Pick your battles
The Lohana Sports Festival runs nine sports across three days, with a Shield on the line. Whether you're a serial finalist or a first-timer, there's a draw with your name on it.
The four-game rule
Choose up to two sports, and up to two categories in each, so four games at most. It keeps the schedule fair and stops anyone sprinting between six courts at once. Pool and golf sit outside the limit because they're on other days, so feel free to add those on top. The form enforces it automatically, so there's no maths to do.
Never played competitively? Perfect.
Most people here are not serial finalists. There are draws for all ages and levels, pickleball takes ten minutes to learn, and every entry scores a Shield point for your mahajan, win or lose. Turning up is the achievement.
Badminton
The festival classic and the biggest trophy programme of 2025, with seven contested categories. Age bands from under-12 to 50 plus, and the one sport with its own 50 plus doubles. Bring your racquet; shuttles are provided.
Table tennis
The most entered sport at the last festival, run with the RCT table tennis team. Quick hands, quicker banter, and merciless on anyone who boasts at family dinners. Bring your bat; balls are provided.
Squash
Four walls, no hiding place. A smaller field means small categories may merge on the day, and it also means a genuine chance of silverware. Bring your racquet.
Pickleball
Played on the badminton courts, paddles and balls provided, so you bring precisely nothing. Ten minutes to learn, which makes it the perfect first-ever festival entry. If you have watched for four years, this is your year.
Tennis
Confirmed for Festival Day, on one court. The draw is run tightly to fit, so stay close to the desk and listen for your name. Suits optimists, which tennis players tend to be.
Football 7-a-side
Squads of seven plus two subs, up to three non-Lohanas in a squad of nine, moulded or plastic-studded boots only on the astro, shin pads strongly recommended. New youth 12–16 round-robin with its own entry.
Indoor cricket 7-a-side
Cancelled for 2026: too few teams entered to run a competition. Team fees are being refunded in full to whoever paid. Squads who entered are still welcome on the day.
Youth cricket U14
An afternoon session where every child takes a medal home. A parent or guardian stays on site for the day. The best £2 you will spend all September.
Pool
The festival opener at RCT Hall, Harrow, Saturday 12 September from 10am. Group stages on four tables before the knockout, so everyone gets several frames. Its own Saturday means you can enter all of its categories.
Golf
Stanmore Golf Club, 19 September. Registration at the club from 11am, first tee 1pm, coffee and roll included in the £75. Buggies £35 per buggy, shared by 2, pre-booked by LCUK and reserved when you entered. Limited, first come, first served.
Antakshari
Cancelled for 2026: too few teams entered. Team fees are being refunded in full to whoever paid. Everyone who entered is still welcome on the day.
Just watching
Spectators are free and nothing needs booking. It’s free, takes two minutes, and it’s how we plan seats, chai and shade for the day.
Both days were free to watch.
Festival day
Eighteen holes and a roll
Registration at the club from 11am, first tee 1pm, which leaves exactly enough time for the coffee and roll already included in your £75. No vouchers, no small print. Golf sits outside the main-day limit, and golf trophies are presented at the main ceremony on Sunday the 20th, in front of the whole community, a considerably better audience than a clubhouse car park.
11am
Registration opens at the club.
Before 1pm
Coffee and a roll, included in your £75.
1pm
First tee.
Sun 20, from 5pm
Golf trophies at the main ceremony, Hatfield.
Buggies are £35 per buggy, shared by two golfers, limited, and pre-booked by LCUK — reserved when you entered — only five or six exist, allocated first come, first served — then pay at the club on the day. Please do not ring the club yourself.
Antakshari will not run this year
Too few teams entered for a competition to run, so Antakshari and indoor cricket are cancelled for 2026. Every team fee is being refunded in full to whoever paid it. Everyone who entered is still welcome on Festival Day, and anyone who comes and checks in scores their mahajan's Shield point.
How the Shield is won
Sixteen mahajans, one Shield, and a points system built so that turning up matters as much as winning. Five points for a winner, three for a runner-up, one for a semi-finalist, and one point for every single person who checks in on the day. Read that last part again. A mahajan that sends fifteen ordinary players beats one that sends three champions, which is exactly the point. Standings run on a board through Festival Day; the mahajan on top at the trophy presentation lifts the Shield and keeps it, engraved, until someone takes it off them in 2027.
Who held the trophies before this year
Titles like these are only borrowed.
Seeded on the 8th of September
Nobody plays once. Wherever the draw allows, group stages run before the knockout, so you get two or three guaranteed matches instead of possibly one. Draws were built by each sport's coordinator from paid entries only, and published a few days before each day of play. Match times came from each coordinator before the day.
Who runs your sport
Draws, match times, squad changes and format questions go to your sport lead. Tap a number to call. Registration and payment queries are best sent to the committee.
Youth cricket U14 has no separate lead this year (indoor cricket is cancelled for 2026). Please contact Ashokbhai Rach on 07956 450895.
All the Lohana Sports Festival sports, found your game?
Every entry scored a point for its mahajan, win or lose.
Festival day