Motherwell FC kindly invited the boys who last session won the Scottish Schools under-14 football shield to the home tie against Partick Thistle. The boys who were accompanied by parents and staff thoroughly enjoyed the entire occasion. They had their photograph taken on the pitch at half-time and walked around the park displaying the Scottish and Lanarkshire shields. The entire crowd gave them a rousing ovation much to their delight. The match programme also included a two page spread in honour of their achievement.

Ex-Scotland international footballer Willie Donachie recently paid a visit to investigate the Scottish FA Performance School of Football set-up at Braidhurst High. Willie gained 35 Scotland caps playing at left back taking part in the famous 1978 World Cup side. Most of his career was spent with Manchester City. Willie is currently the development coach with Newcastle United and he asked to come and see for himself the football development set up at the school. He was greatly impressed by the facilities land the development programme.

The 2nd match of staff –v- pupil cricket took place on Monday afternoon after school with the pupils looking for revenge from last year’s humiliating defeat to the staff. The pupils had formed a strong team and rumour had it that they were holding training sessions in weekends before the big match. On the day, the pupils were very confident and had brought along supporters, including two parents. However, one parent very kindly agreed to umpire the match whilst the other decided to join in with the staff team. The pupils elected to bowl first and the staff were eager to take wickets. The pupils looked to be starting off with their strongest batting pair, the Khan brothers, with Azhar looking to have more of an impact in this years’ game after being bowled out for a golden duck last year. It was looking promising after scoring a couple of runs until Mr Clark had him caught and bowled with a lighting reflex catch. The pupils began to score, some down to wide bowls from staff but eventually the pressure from bowlers began to cause problems as the teachers began to take wickets. Mr Khan stepped up to bowl and he took 3 wickets in his over, a tremendous achievement for the staff team. Pupils scored 40 runs all out.

For the staff, the promising Mr Thompson, who has a wealth of experience in cricket, opened but he was then put out after the ball went high off of his bat and was caught. Mr Clark joined Dr Gardner on the field. This was the beginning of the end of the match, with Mr Clark and Dr Gardner scoring with almost every ball, even though a very young Zafar’s bowling was the highlight of the match. They even managed several 4s and 6s land the pupils could see that with 8 batters still left in the pavilion the match was well out of their reach. The match finally ended with the staff scoring 44 for 1.

Well done to everyone who participated and to the group of senior pupils who organised the game. Thank you to staff and parents who were involved in the game. I’m sure the pupils will be starting to practice for the 3rd annual Braidhurst staff –v- pupil test match.

Prizegiving will take place on the morning of the last day of term Thursday 27^th June starting at 10.30 am. The principal guests will be Councillor Jim Logue the Convener of Learning and Leisure Services and Mrs Madeleine Hannan, wife of the Rector. The parents of all prizewinners have been invited to attend what is always the highlight of the session.

Staff and pupils at Braidhurst High were absolutely delighted to learn that two pupils recently won medals in the three nations junior boxing championship held in Warrington. Matthew Middleton boxing in the 48kg category won bronze with John Stevenson boxing at 54 kg gaining a silver. Both boys box for Forgewood ABC and represented Scotland against strong opposition from England and Wales.

Braidhurst High School’s S3 netball team have had another successful year and have been crowned winners of their league section. The girls have a tremendous track record and remain undefeated in the league this year. The girls’ hard work over the past three years has paid off with them gaining success in both local and national competitions. However the girls still have one important game to play before the end of the season and that is the staff –v- pupil network match.

Rebecca Murray has successfully completed her first year in the netball south regions pathways squad. The purpose of the pathways squad is to develop young players who have been identified as particularly talented so that they can then progress and feed into the national U17 squad. The squad train every two weeks in East Kilbride. Initial selection does not guarantee your place for the year and Rebecca has proved that she has what it takes allowing her to maintain her position in the squad. Rebecca said “The training is very hard, but is worth it as I have improved all areas of my game”.