Braidhurst under 15 school team had the honour of representing Scotland at the British Isles Cup.  The tournament sees the cup winners from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland come together to play for the Allen McKinstry Cup.

This year the tournament was held at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Telford, England.  The format of the competition is designed that all teams play two games then a league table is collated.  The top two teams play for the trophy, the next two for third place and the last two for fifth place.  The host nation supplies the sixth team to make it an even six teams.

Braidhurst kicked off their tournament on the Friday evening against Ysgol Plasmawr from Cardiff, Wales.   The boys started slowly which, given their seven hour bus journey, was to be expected.   They found themselves 2-0 down but bravely battled back to draw level at 2-2.   However, just when it looked as if penalties were looming, tiredness caught up with the players and two mistakes saw the Welsh finish the game 4-2 victors.

The following morning a fully rested Braidhurst took a Northampton School for Boys and easily saw them off 7-0.  Braidhurst were now relying on Edmund Rice College, Glengormley from Northern Ireland to defeat St Brendan’s College, Killarney of the Republic of Ireland to send them into second place.  However, despite a late rally from the Glengormley boys, St Brendan’s ran out 7-4 winners.  This left Braidhurst playing for a third place finish.

Sunday morning saw Braidhurst take on Christleton High School from Cheshire, the English Cup holders, to see who would claim third place.  Christleton started much brighter and found themselves 1-0 to the better.  This acted as a wake-up call to Braidhurst who finally started to play their wonderful passing game.  Once they started to play this way they soon dominated the game and eventually won the game 4-1.  This confirmed not only third place in the tournament but also top scorers.  Braidhurst can be proud of their involvement in the tournament and their ‘double’ over the two English teams.  The tournament was won by Ysgol Plasmawr of Wales who defeated St Brendan’s College of the Republic of Ireland 1-0 in the final.

Pupils in the second year Scottish FA Performance school of football and their parents recently attended a meeting to review the trip to the world famous Benfica Football Academy in Portugal.   Following a welcome from the Rector Mr Hannan, the participants viewed a video taken of the trip and then heard from Ms Ruth Anderson, Depute in charge of second year of the work the group of pupils had undertaken in school to reflect upon the experience and set targets.   This was then followed by excellent inputs from four pupils Leon McCann, Jon McCracken, Marco McGillivray and Lewis Gamble who gave a very positive view of their experience of the trip in a highly professional manner.   Scottish FA coach Gordon Craig then outlined various lessons learned from the trip emphasising how impressed the Benfica Academy coaches had been of the skill of the Scottish pupils.   Mr Derek Gamble then delivered a very thoughtful vote of thanks to all the staff who had accompanied the party on what was a truly remarkable experience.

Tickets for this year’s show ‘The Wizard of Oz’ are selling very well.   Pupils and staff have been working hard to ensure the usual high standard of performance for those who attend.   Tickets are still available for each performance from Ms Ruth Watson at the school.   The show will take place on Wednesday 18^th, Thursday 19^th and Friday 20^th June starting at 7.30 pm.