Hampshire Plate Final 10.5.24
On Friday 10th May, the boys’ football team played in their eagerly anticipated Hampshire Plate Final. Having performed well in the previous few rounds, the boys knew this would be a tough test as they faced off against Merdon Junior School. The game was played at Stoneham on a scorching hot evening which would be sure to test the boys’ fitness!
The game started off fairly cagey with both teams trying to work each other out. After a few minutes, Fair Oak seemed to have taken control of the game but were finding it difficult to pass the 3 defenders of Merdon. The boys started to try and put more numbers forward but were caught once on the counter attack. This turned into an excellent opportunity for Merdon and their striker was just unable to put the ball on target and the ball was squared to him. Having survived the scare, the boys seemed to start attacking with more intent and after a series of corners the ball broke to edge of the area where Reuben was able to drive a low shot in the bottom corner past all of the bodies in the way making it 1-0 to Fair Oak.
The goal helped settle the boys and they began to play the ball around nicely. They got their reward just before half time and Leo made another brilliant run down the left, beating 3 defenders before cutting inside and firing Fair Oak into a 2-0 lead.
The second half started equally well. Blake, who came on as a half time sub, showed some excellent perseverance on the left wing. Battling well for the ball and stealing possession deep in the opposition half, he was able to cross the ball to Jake who slotted home the third. For the rest of the game, Harry, George and Radley stayed strong at the back with Evan continuing to distribute the ball excellently to create lots of attacking opportunities for Fair Oak. Odhran and Luca also ran with the ball brilliantly and closed down excellently to put Merdon under pressure every time they had the ball.
At the final whistle the boys celebrated their victory and enjoyed lifting the trophy. They have worked hard as a team this year and have developed brilliantly. Aside from the result, the boys were praised by the organisers of the event for playing the final with excellent sportsmanship. They showed respect to the opposition and played competitively with the right balance which is fantastic to hear about a team representing our school in a county wide tournament.
Tuesday 14th May
Today a group of children represented Fair Oak Junior School in the annual Quad Kids event. Quad kids is an athletics competition where the children compete in 4 events including long jump, a throw, a 75m sprint and a 600m run. The children represented the school beautifully, completing their activities to a high standard as well as showing fantastic sportsmanship. These children have shown such dedication to their training this year and it was lovely to see their hard work pay off. We will look forward to hearing if they have qualified to the next round of Quad Kids. Well done guys!
Regional Finals 22.5.24
Although we didn’t quite qualify for the regional finals, we were invited along as the best runners up to face off against the best schools from several neighbouring regions. The tournament was a 9 team league, where each team would play once.
The quality of football was very impressive all afternoon and the boys gave a good account of themselves against some tough oppositions. Despite torrential rain for the first two games the boys remained in good spirts and picked up some good results earlier on in the competition. Things were trickier as the afternoon progressed and the boys probably didn’t put on their best display of the season but still put in some respectable performances. They didn’t do enough to finish in the top 3 but still enjoyed their afternoon, especially the Year 6 boys who wore the green and black shirts before they move onto secondary school!