Tuesday 27th January was a special day for Harrow Way Leadership Academy and for the Andover Town Schools’ Sports Association. It was the first ever Andover Town Schools’ New Age Kurling Competition! Eight schools (Portway Junior, Knights Enham Junior, Roman Way Primary, Endeavour Primary, Balksbury Junior, St John’s RC Primary, Anton Junior and Vigo Junior) entered twenty teams in total – the maximum possible!
As schools arrived, Harrow Way leaders welcomed them and accompanied the players to their practice courts. The Sports Hall quickly started to buzz with the sound of stones flying towards targets, stones hitting stones and excited children sharing tactics! Many of the children had never played the game before but, with the support of the leaders, they quickly picked up the technique, skills and team tactics needed to play.
After the practice session, the competition started! Teams of 4 (a mixture of years and gender) were put into four pools, the winners of each to play each other in the semi-finals. After forty close games, expertly led and scored by the leaders, the teams discovered who would be in the semi-finals: Anton B, St Johns A, St Johns B and Balksbury A. Balksbury A and St Johns A were the eventual finalists. With everyone gathered around to watch, the final became a tense occasion played in a fantastic spirit with the audience watching and applauding every shot. After four ends, the match was tied; two more ends had to be played! Balksbury A are to be congratulated on an outstanding performance, as are all of the 20 teams in the competition, but the first ever winners of the Town Schools’ New Age Kurling competition were St Johns A.
Huge thanks to all the children for taking part and showing excellent sportsmanship and to the Harrow Way leaders who were fabulous as usual; they are now looking forward to leading the Cluster competition on Tuesday 3rd February!
Year 7: Agata Ruminska, Connor Burrows, Grace Farrelly, Bronwyn Barton-Knott, Sammy Harrison, Maddie Rushton, Faye Bowman, Amber Cherrington and Tamara Clackson
Year 8: Emily Tunney and Tashann Henry
Year 9: Lauren Williams and Emma Hunter
Year 10: Ella Taylor and Britney Enright