Braidhurst under 15s football team narrowly missed out on winning the British Isles Cup after losing the final 4-2 on penalties.

The boys, as Scottish cup winners, were taking part in the Allen McKinstry Cup.  This is a tournament where the cup winners from all of the home nations, plus the Republic of Ireland play to see who can be crowned overall champions.  The format of the tournament is that each team plays two games then a mini league is drawn up based on results with the top two playing for the cup, the next two play for third and fourth place, etc.  For this system to work a sixth team is included which is always provided by the host nation.

This year the finals were held in Northern Ireland, with all of the games being played at the Billy Neill Soccer Centre of Excellence.  Braidhurst got themselves off to a wonderful start with a 3 – 0 victory over St Teilo’s High, Cardiff.  The next day Braidhurst found themselves 1 – 0 down at half-time to Our Lady and St Patrick’s College, Knock.  After ringing the changes with four substitutions they were soon level, eventually overpowering the opposition and running out 4 – 1 victors.

Saturday morning saw Braidhurst take to the field for the final against Calasanctius College, Oranmore – Co. Galway.  The Irish side got off to the best possible start scoring in under six seconds straight from kick-off, a lobbed shot dropped over the Braidhurst goalkeeper into the net.  This spurred the Braidy boys on and they were level within two minutes.  From then on the game was dominated by Braidhurst.  The boys created chance after chance but agonisingly they could not get the ball into the net.  Calasanctius defended strongly but never troubled the Braidhurst goal for the rest of the match.  Full-time saw the game finish 1 – 1 and a dreaded penalty shoot-out took place.  All credit to the Irish players who converted their penalties with great skill, and their goal keeper who managed to save two Braidhurst penalties, winning them British Isles Cup.

The Braidhurst boys can be proud of the manner in which they conducted themselves both on and off the pitch.  This was commended by all who watched them play and met them.

Third year pupil Scott Bell is making rapid progress in the world of rugby.   Scott who started playing rugby in first year has now been selected for the Glasgow Chiefs, a team made up of the best young rugby talent in the West of Scotland.

Scott has made two appearances from the Chiefs winning both games.   Despite his success Scott has set his sights even higher eventually wanting to sign professionally for the Glasgow Warriors.

Pupils at Braidhurst are pictured participating in the S1 Inter Disciplinary Project.   The project titled ‘The Outdoor Classroom’ was a combination of activities as delivered by several departments throughout the school.   The overall theme was to develop problem solving skills and emotional resilience.   To achieve this pupils participated in seven fantastic activities ranging from habitat Sampling with Science to Bridge Building with the Technology department.  Now safely back in school all pupils will continue to build upon what they have learned in each of the departments.

Braidhurst High was recently delighted to accept the gift of a framed Benfica Football Club strip from former SFA Performance coach Gordon Craig.   The strip was given to Gordon when the SFA Performance group recently spent a week training with Benfica in Portugal.

Tickets for ‘Back to the 80s’ are how on sale from Mrs Hunter at the school.   The show will take place on Wednesday 17^th and Thursday 18^th June in the school hall.   The tickets are priced at £4 for adults and £2 for children.

Braidhurst High will this year award a joint dux to fifth year pupils Marc Armitage and Gillian Scott.   Both have outstanding academic records throughout their five years at the school, including fifth year.   Marc came to the school through the Scottish FA School of Football initiative, whereas Gillian is local and is a high performance netball player.   The Rector Mr Hannan commented, “This was such a difficult decision with a larger number of highly able candidates than I can remember.   It was such a delight to inform the pair and hear them offer each other congratulations”.