Westmere win 2019 Whanganui Contributing Schools football tournament

Westmere School's Kaleb Compton attempts to slip past St Georges' defender Eli Abraham during his team's 1-0 win in the Whanganui Contributing Schools Football tournament at Wembley Park on Tuesday. Photo / Bevan Conley

Westmere toppled St Georges 1-nil to win the 2019 Whanganui Contributing Schools football tournament at Wembley Park on Tuesday.

Whanganui East School who made it four titles on the bounce after narrowly defeating St Georges 1-0 last season, finished third after beating St Mary's 1-0 in the play-off for minor placings. This season, 13 schools competed in the A grade and 26 in B grade for a total of 450 children playing in the 15-minute matches.

Event co-organiser and Churton School deputy principal Gary Johnston said he was delighted to see the tournament continue to grow after all these years and he was equally impressed with the quality of football played by the primary school aged children.

"We had one less school compete in the A grade, but five extra in the B grade, so it was really pleasing to see the tournament grow. New to the tournament was Te Wainui a Rua from up the Whanganui River," Johnston said.

"I am also impressed by the quality of football played and that's down to the coaches and interest shown by the schools and parents. We have Anthony Bell, the head coach of City coaching St Mary's and Athletic coach Jason King looking after St Anne's.

"Then we have volunteers from Whanganui High School refereeing our games. Central Football also helped out, so it was pretty much all areas of the football fraternity involved and that has to be good."

Johnston said this was one of the larger events the contributing schools cluster ran every year.

"There are 22 schools that make up the Whanganui Contributing Schools cluster and all these sporting events are teacher-led initiatives."