Hamilton Boys the best at Wembley

Hamilton Boys High 2nd XI's Jack Marden lets fly with his shot early in the final at Wembley Park yesterday.

The Hamilton Boys High 2nd XI emerged as the pick of 24 teams who competed at the NZ Secondary Schools Football tournament yesterday after out-playing Wairarapa College in the final 4-0.

Both teams had tough semifinals on Thursday afternoon as Hamilton had beaten Lynfield 1-0, while Wairarapa held off Western Heights by the same score.

Central Football spokesman Symon King said in the championship game, Hamilton pushed the ball along the "horse shoe" - the back line - to make Wairarapa chase them and open up gaps.

"It was good to watch."

Earlier on Wednesday there had been some interesting results in the quarterfinals.
Defending champions St Pat's were knocked out by Wairarapa, last year's beaten finalists, by 1-0.

King said St Pat's were not happy with the refereeing decisions, while just as unsurprisingly, Wairarapa thought the officiating was fine.

It was one of only two contentious moments over the refereeing all week, with most teams happy with the standard.

Lynfield also picked up an upset with a 1-0 win over Pukekohe, while Western Heights overcame Trident 2-1 after a fiery match.

Hamilton Boys had a 2-0 win over Ormiston in the other quarterfinal.

Wanganui Collegiate were looking better in the second half of the week as they entered the third tier of playoffs.

They beat Inglewood on penalties after being deadlocked 2-2 at fulltime, then won their semifinal convincingly against Campion 5-0.

However, Collegiate were beaten in their final yesterday by Aotea 2-1, to finish 18th overall of the 24 teams.

King said other than a couple of "whipping boys", most of the teams played to a high level, with different coaches providing different touches to their sides.

Teams were also complimentary of the hosting at Wembley Park, with the coach of

Otorohanga saying it was one of the best from the 16 national schoolboy tournaments he has attended.

"Everyone has spoken of how well the tournament was run," said King.