Football frenzy at Wembley Park

FANCY FOOTWORK: Churton School's Nathan Procter uses some fancy footwork in an attempt to get passed Leia Murphy from St Mary's during the annual Whanganui Primary Inter-school Football tournament.

The younger brigade took the limelight yesterday when the annual Whanganui Primary Inter-school Football tournament shared Wembley Park with the older set.

The junior one day competition ran alongside day two of the New Zealand Secondary School Football tournament that run until the end of the week.

Yesterday 31 teams from the wider Whanganui region took part in the one day primary event, although just 10 competed for the Sport Whanganui Inter-school Trophy in the more serious A grade division. The more relaxed B grade section featured 21 teams.

Wanganui East School retained the A grade trophy it won last year when it beat St Anne's 1-nil. Churton School finished third.

Meanwhile, defending champions St Patrick's College were looking sharp dominating Pool C at the national secondary schools event.

The Wellington-based college remained unbeaten and had no goals scored against them in their three matches played since Monday. St Pat's led Pool C on 9 points, 4pts clear of nearest rival Lytton College.

Central Football development officer for Whanganui, Symon King, who is helping to co-ordinate the event at Wembley Park, said the St Pat's team was completely dominant in its pool, although Western Heights High School was also unbeaten and had not conceded a goal in its three games up until yesterday in Pool D.

The Rotorua side play Otorohanga College in what is expected to be a ripper of a match this morning. By the end of play yesterday Western Heights were leading their pool on 9pts with Otorohanga on 7pts.

"Otorohanga is another strong side and can test Western Heights," King said yesterday.
"While last season's winners St Pat's is looking very strong again this year, the interesting games are in Pool B where three teams are battling it out for top honours. Pukekohe High School, Trident High School from Whakatane and Northcote College from Auckland's North Shore are in a three-way battle."

Pukekohe and Trident had 7pts each, while Northcote had 6pts.
Wairarapa College and Hamilton Boys High 2nd X1 were topping Pool A on 6pts apiece, while Wanganui Collegiate School had 1pt.

Pool play continues today, quarter finals tomorrow with the final set down to kick off at 1pm on Friday.