U11 Boys Football Tournament
St Christopher’s continued the tradition of hosting the first event in Bahrain’s Primary Sports League with the U11 Boys Football Tournament. Rain was threatening overhead as St Chris’s three teams – United, Rovers and again from the Development Squad, Athletic – began their quest for the cup.
United started ridiculously well with possibly a record 9-0 victory but then slumped to a surprise defeat by Bayan. Rovers and Athletic were having similarly mixed fortunes in their pool, including a 1-0 win by Rovers over Athletic. United managed to stage a recovery and made progress into the semi-finals against a strong BSB team who had won their group, with both Rovers and Athletic just missing out.
It was a tale of utter dominance from United but without a breakthrough as the final whistle blew with both teams unable to score and too resilient to concede. Extra time proved a similar story leaving penalties a cruel decider. Sam Stubbs stepped up as the St Chris hero, saving the final BSB penalty with a huge dive to his left and sending United into the final. It was a chance for United to make amends against Bayan and, as they had in the group game, opened the scoring through Abdulla Al Aali. Bayan, as they had in the group game, equalised but this time, St Chris proved the more determined and Faisal Fakhro crowned a great personal footballing week with his second trophy-winning goal in as many finals.
Every player did their bit for their team, showing that it is often the will-to-win that decides the outcome and should be as pleased with their performances as their managers, Mr Maye, Mr Dales and Mr Holness were. Huge thanks must go to Mr Gosling, Mr Ross and Mr Roycroft who refereed with complete impartiality and authority, as well as Mr Armstrong whose digital wizardry and consistent commentary kept the event rolling smoothly.
United: Rovers: Athletic:
Sam Stubbs Nathan Busek Oliver Duell
Aidan Nangle Ghazi Abunahl Abdulla Abueid
John Wilkie Thomas Jessup Hamza AlSalloum
Nicholas Santiago Cillian Finlay Faisal Al Jassim
Abboud Abi Ramia Aiden Kadissi William Brown
Zouheir Hamdan Sam Hayes Matthew van der List
Samuel Al Koheji Shahmeer Hakeem Cameron Charters
Faisal Fakhro Fuad Kanoo Abdulla AlRamadan
Nyasha Chihwayi Will Fisher Sami Ghozlani
Abdulla AlAali Owen Wrankmore Fawaz Al Aradi
Girl’s PSL Football Tournament
The PSL girls football tournament got off to a great start on Monday 20 November. St Chris entered three teams named United, Rovers and Athletic. All three teams showed they were a force to be reckoned with on the pitch! St Chris Athletic finished their pool games having not conceded any goals at all! Unfortunately, they just missed reaching the semi-finals. St Chris Rovers won some games and drew others, placing them at the top of their pool and seeing them enter the semi-finals against BSB A. St Chris United sailed through to also finish top of their pool. They didn’t concede any goals and entered the semi-finals as favourites. Having beaten BSB B, they headed into the finals. Unfortunately, in football, nothing is a certainty, and in a close match against BSB A, the final score was 2-1 to BSB. St Chris Rovers kept the goals out to make it a 0-0 draw at the end of time. This meant that St Chris United went home with 2nd place medals, while St Chris Rovers went home with joint 3rd place medals. Miss Lambert and Mr Dawson are very proud coaches! Well done girls!
St Chris United | St Chris Rovers | St Chris Athletic |
Erin Jardine | Dara Clifton | Isla Dennell |
Grace Dawson | Wilma Tautenhahn | Jessica McCarthy |
Leanne cockerill | Nour Tahboub | Tabitha moore |
Phoebe McInroy | Yara Elkhatib | Caitlin Peters |
Isabel Looby | Maddie Stewart | Layla tedha |
Amnah Albustani | Sophia Mousa | Flo Wilkins |
Noha Barbir | Esmae Pearey | Kendra Manuel |
Hanna Hevesey | Saria alhamer | Emily Elsdon |
Mia Sum | Kelsey Harris |
Liana Alkhateeb |