Lions full of pride for their young footballers!

On Wednesday 25th March, despite the somewhat Arctic conditions, some 60 young players from Portway Junior School, Knights Enham Junior and Wolverdene School braved the elements to take part in the highly enjoyable HSA sponsored Lions in the Community Harrow Way Festival held at the Harrow Way Community School.

The tournament was played over the course of the day as a league, with all teams playing one another and was thoroughly enjoyed by all, whether playing or spectating. In the true spirit of the event, now in its second year, the competition fielded a large majority of keen footballers (over 70%) experiencing their first taste of not only a tournament but also a proper game of football.
The team from Wolverdene School , who receive weekly training from Andover F.C Lions in the community coaches, put in some outstanding performances to achieve a very creditable third place, whilst Knights Enham and Portway Lions finished runners up and winners respectively in a very closely fought contest, with only a point separating them.

Portway Fire picked up the Fair Play Award for their great enthusiasm and determination throughout the competition, not least the fact they seemed to thoroughly enjoy all their matches irrespective of the score line.

Angela Brown and Kate Auton representing Lions in the Community sponsors Simply Health thoroughly enjoyed all the action and were both on hand to present the prizes to the winning team.

Cathy Devereux, Director of Andover F.C’s Lions in the Community was delighted with the day’s proceedings and commented, “It was wonderful to see so many keen, yet in the main, less experienced players getting their opportunity to shine! It was also very rewarding to see the Harrow Way Sports Leaders and Sparsholt students doing such a superb job both managing and coaching the teams and even refereeing some of the games as well! Congratulations to Rhonda Sturges of Harrow Way Community School on her superb organisation and coordination of proceedings!”

Tim Deery, Head Teacher of Portway Junior School was also very impressed with the day’s event, “24 of the 32 children from Portway Junior School had NEVER played a proper match before and 31 had never represented the school. They came back buzzing with excitement and as a result are far more likely to participate in sport in the future.”