Senior Football Tour to Barcelona

Date: Monday 5 November 2007

Over the last several years half-term in the Michaelmas Term has seen a sports' tour to various different European destinations, often involving both boys' football teams and girls' hockey.

This year the boys went it alone, and went back to Barcelona for what was described by Leigh Millard as the 'best sports' tour that he had ever been on'! 19 players and three members of staff left School at 4.30am on Friday 19th October. What now follows is Captain Max Kirkness' account of the tour.

"We arrived at our hotel in the early afternoon, and relaxed for the rest of the day in preparation for upcoming matches.

On Saturday we didn't have a match so everyone headed down to the beach for some beach football, and then a swim in the sea. Like most evenings we then went out for a meal, and then watched the rugby, which, despite the result, ended a good day.

Sunday was a match day, and so we had no training planned. We started the match positively and scored early on, with a goal from Oliver Perry. However, a couple of pieces of careless defending allowed them to score twice, leaving the half-time score at 1 - 2. In the second half they altered their team considerably, and it showed. They were far more competitive and left us little opportunity to attack. Consequently they scored four more goals, leaving the final score as 1 - 6.

With no match on the Monday we had a two-hour training session on a pitch a short walk from the hotel, and left the rest of the day free for resting on the beach, and some volleyball in the afternoon.

Again on Tuesday we had another training session in preparation for the evening's match against opposition that we also played last year. This match probably produced our best performance of the tour. We started well, creating opportunities, but were unable to convert them; luckily our defence remained strong throughout the first half, which ended 0 - 0. In the second half we continued to play well,but, as our legs tired, two mistakes allowed them to score twice, leaving the final score at 0 - 2.

Our final match was on the Wednesday, at a private school close to Barcelona. A slow start left us 0 - 2 down early on, but we recovered to 2 - 2 at half-time thanks to two goals from Charles Allen. The second half started as the first had done, and they scored two more, before Charles Allen completed his European hat-trick, giving us some hope late on. They, however, scored again, leaving the final score at 3 - 5.

This match ended what was fantastic tour, and on behalf of all the pupils that went, I'd like to thank Mr Bold, Mr Millard, and Mr Buckingham for taking us."

One final postscript: the 'best player of the tour' award went to Jack Barwick; the 'Golden Boot' award to Charles Allen; and, the Pool championship to Thomas Hulme.