Last week we sent 28 children to Bolton School to represent Clevelands Prep in their annual football festival.  On Wednesday it was the turn of the lower Juniors and Years Three and Four combined to make up a team. We also included Abdulmateen from Year Two who is a promising footballer.  Despite none of the players playing for a team outside of school on a regular basis, they performed exceptionally well. They were committed, brave and showed what I believe to be the real Cleveland spirit.

They lost two games narrowly, by one goal to nil (one of those games was against a very good team and was the performance of the night from our children). They drew one game 0-0, and won their last game 2-1. There was one 3-0 defeat where luck deserted us completely. The winning game included two fantastic goals from Ayron and Stanislav, and a match winning save from Lucy in goal. With the relentless tackling from Izzy, we were always quite secure at the back, and then Yasin provided yards and yards of energy and enthusiasm, and alongside his brother Abdulmateen, they formed a formidable midfield partnership. It was a very proud afternoon for me personally to see these children play with such passion, pride and skill. 

On Thursday, we took three teams to Bolton School for their main festival. The Year Six team played in the A team tournament, the Year Five boys played in the B team tournament, and we also had a girls' team. We had twenty-two very excited children and they once again did our whole school proud. The A team won two matches, drew one and lost one. They came joint second and missed out on the next stage by goal difference. A tremendous effort which included a wonder goal from distance by Jay (we know you meant it Jay!!!). The Year Five team played tough and fairly, again losing just one match and winning one, drawing the other two. This meant a third place finish for them, which was unlucky, as they played their hearts out.

Finally, came our girls who won their first three matches (including a win against Bolton Girls School), and finished with a draw against Lostock, which meant they topped the group. The quarter finals saw us play Beaumont Primary and after going a goal down, the girls thundered back with four goals to complete a comfortable win. The semifinals saw us matched against Markland Hill, and they proved a little too strong for us.  A brilliant afternoon supported by Mrs. Critchley and Miss. Pennington where our children performed to the best of their abilities and made us all very proud.