From our own correspondent, the marvellous Mr H!
Monday 12th September 2022
Year 5/6 football competition. This was rearranged from the end of the last school year. We took a squad of 10 players: Marek, Carter, Mason, Finley, Leo, Riley, Koby, Firefunmi, Ollie and Colby. We played 2 games in the group stages and despite dominating both games, we lost 1-0 and drew 1-1, which meant we didn’t qualify for the semi-finals. It was disappointing as we were by far the best team there! However, we were given the chance to play a 10-a-side game against the team who failed to qualify from the other group. We played a 40 minute match, and managed to win 10-2, again dominating throughout. Most players managed to get on the scoresheet.
Star of the tournament: Marek. Brilliant goalkeeping when he was called into action.
Monday 10th October 2022
Year 5/6 Boys Football Team welcomed Burton Joyce to our school for a friendly match. We named a squad of 10 again: Marek, Carter, Mason, Kiyan, Riley, Finley, Leo, Firefunmi, Ollie and Cillian. Unbeknown to me when arranging the fixture, Burton Joyce were the current Gedling Schools Champions and boasted an amazing 6 Academy footballers in their squad of 9. Our boys found the game tough going for the first 10 minutes, with Burton Joyce dominating possession and scoring 4 goals. After the shock of that, we got back into the game and created some chances of our own. In the second half, Burton Joyce came at us strongly again. Brilliant goalkeeping by Marek managed to keep the score below double figures, and we managed to sneak a goal ourselves through Leo. Whilst being an extremely tough game, Carlton players managed to learn a lot from it, particularly about what it takes to be an Academy footballer and the value of teamwork.
Star of the match: Marek, who made some unbelievable saves and stopped the scoreline from being above double figures.
Wednesday 9th November 2022
The mixed Year 6 Tag Rugby team travelled to Arnold Mill in the afternoon. Our squad of 12 were: George, James, Riley-James, Reuben, Kiyan, Leo, Keaton, Isabelle L, Isabelle R, Keira, Lily-Grace and Ro-Anne. We took part in 3 Tag Rugby matches, which were non-competitive and aimed at getting as many children into the sport of Tag Rugby as possible. We managed to win all 3 of our games, beating Arnold Mill 4-2, Sacred Heart 5-2, and Salterford House 5-3. The entire team were outstanding throughout, and all 12 players took part in 2 games each.
Leo and Isabelle L were our top try scorers, but our star of the tournament was Reuben, who stood out for his ability to take the opposition’s tags high up the pitch, resulting in us getting the ball back and scoring lots of tries.
Every member of the team played their part and had it been a competitive tournament, they would have brought back some winners medals!
Friday 11th November 2022
Another boys’ friendly, this time across the road at Sacred Heart. Due to injuries and illness, we went with just a squad of 8 players on the day: Marek, Kiyan, Riley, Leo, Finley, Firefunmi, Ollie and Cillian. Again, unbeknown to me, Sacred Heart had 3 Academy footballers in their squad, meaning another tough game for the boys. However, the game started off very evenly and thanks to more brilliant goalkeeping by Marek, we were 0-0 halfway through the first half. As half time approached, we conceded 3 goals and suffered an injury to Firefunmi, our quickest player. Despite him trying to come back on and help the team, it was obvious he couldn’t continue and we didn’t want to risk further injury. It meant the other 7 had to play with no subs available. They stepped up though, and the second half was again very even. Unfortunately, we only managed the 1 goal, which was a brilliant goal from near the corner by Leo. Marek was again brilliant in goal.
However, star of the match was Finley. He kept going all through the game, winning tackles, helping us up the pitch and could (should) have had a goal himself.
Monday 28th November 2022
This time it was the Cross-Country competition at Carlton-le-Willows Academy. We took a boys’ team and a girls’ team. Unfortunately, on the day Leo was ill and couldn’t make it, and he had been our quickest in the practice at school. So we continued with the 5 boys and 6 girls: Keaton, George, James, Finley, Oliver, Isabelle L, Laci-Mai, Lola, Lily M, Layla M and Wiktoria. The top 12 individual runners from each race would be asked to represent the whole of Gedling in the County race in February. So there was incentive for the runners as a team and as individuals.
The girls raced first in what was a very tough race. 40 girls were in the race and our top 2 runners, Isabelle and Laci-Mai, finished 21st and 22nd respectively. They were both disappointed afterwards with their starts, which were a bit slower than they liked. In the second half of their runs they made up a lot of ground on the girls in the middle of the field, and finished strongly. As a team, we finished 7th.
The boys had the advantage of watching the girls’ race first, so in their race they all started slightly more quickly and stayed with the main group of runners in the middle. The boys had strong runs throughout and in a field of 45 runners, our lowest came in at 31st. Also, I am very pleased to say that 2 of the boys finished in the top 12. Finley in 8th and Oliver in 12th qualified to represent Gedling should they want to in February. They will be offered the chance to run at Berry Hill Park in Mansfield. So a massive well done to the 2 of them. As a team, the boys came in 5th, only 1 point behind 4th and 2 points behind 3rd.
Games and Competitions to look out for:
High 5 Netball – February
Year 3/4 Indoor Athletics – March/April time
Year 5/6 Indoor Athletics – March/April time
Boys’ football league – Fixtures to start in March
Girls’ football league – Fixtures to start in March.
Year 5 and 6 Boys Cricket competition – May or June
Girls Cricket competition – June or July
Year 4 and 5 football tournament – July
