Primary footy tournament grows

A well-drilled Whanganui East School X1 claimed back-to-back titles after a dour struggle with St George's in the final of the annual Whanganui Primary School Football Tournament at Wembley Park on Tuesday.

Whanganui East narrowly won the A-grade division 1-nil over St George's while St Anne's and St Johns tied for third in what was billed as the largest tournament yet.

Event Organiser and Churton School deputy principal Gary Johnston said 32 schools from throughout the district and as far away as Hunterville competed this year, up from 26 last season.

"It's becoming massive and some schools are even entering two or three teams now, it's really popular," Johnston said.

"We run an A-grade for the more serious teams and a B-grade for those less serious and just want to have a game. We only have a result for the A-grade. There are two pools that play down to a final and four pools that compete in B-grade.

"It began many, many years back with a core group involved, but in recent years we have been consciously looking at expanding. We still have a core group of schools involved with a wider group joining in and we host other tournaments as well featuring different sporting codes including netball, athletics, swimming, rugby and hockey, but this football tournament is by far the largest," Johnston said.