Congratulations to our football team who made it through from the North West Zones, to compete in the Canterbury Primary Schools Competition.

On Thursday 5th September, 10 students from year 5/6 participated in the Canterbury Primary Football finals after winning their zone the week before. The kids were all very excited about making it to this tournament and really did make our school proud. A strong team consisting of Connor J, Cooper, Blake, Aidan, Nixon, Theo, Reilly, Lottie, Kiana and Ben S, played their little hearts out in all of their games.

The competition across all 18 teams was incredibly close and even the organisers at the end said this competition could have gone to any of these teams, which is great for Christchurch Football and the up and coming players.

Our pool consisted of a 1 nil win against Dunsandel, a draw vs Waitakiri, a 1 nil loss to Fendalton and a win against Woodend. Even with a great pool round, we ended up 3rd in our pool so not qualifying for the top 4 for semis or finals. However, our team went on to represent the school proudly, losing their quarter final 1 nil to Aidanfield, winning their semi final 1 nil in a hard fought battle of game time, 5 minutes extra time and then dropping 1 player every minute to get down to 3 players. A very exciting match for all the parents and other teams watching on.

Our final was another hard fought game against Thorington losing 1 nil. It was a great tournament had by all and the kids enjoyed the experience. Sadly, that is the luck of tournaments and even small losses can mean you are playing off for lower places, but the team took this on their shoulder and still did our school proud, with many still able to come back next year for another crack.

Thanks to Lyndon, Alicia B, Alicia S and Anna for helping with managing and transporting the kids to Hagley and being their all day to support. And thanks to Christa and Phil for coaching and referring the games.