Highlight of the Week

Choir School Association Tournament 2010

On Wednesday 24^th March 2010 the Llandaff Cathedral boy and girl choristers travelled to Oxford to compete in the Choir Schools Association Football & Netball tournament. This tournament, which was being hosted by Magdalen College School, involves Cathedral Schools from all over the South West of England & Wales.

The boy chorister football team's first game was against the hosts and tournament favourites, Magdalen College School. It was an evenly contested game. Magdalen went one up only to see Llandaff deservedly equalise, Titus Wing converting a fine move of sophisticated passing interplay involving (probably) the whole team. Llandaff had a number of half chances to secure the game, however, a couple of long shots from Magdalen consigned the young, valiant Llandaff team to an unlucky defeat.   

Having settled their first match nerves Llandaff undertook a number of positional and tactical changes and went on to play a very physical Tewkesbury Abbey side. Whilst Tewkesbury battled hard,it was a case of artists against artisans and the skill of the whole Llandaff squad comfortably won the day with a well deserved win 2-0, goals scored by Conor Hughes & Nathaniel 'sniffer'  Alcolado.

The final game of the group was against Wells.  By this time the Llandaff boys were really playing as a team and  had a fantastic game , completely overrunning a much bigger Wells side,  winning 4-0, with goals from Conor Hughes, Nathaniel 'very sniffy'  Alcolado (2) & Evan Moss. Llandaff were runners up in their group with 6 points.

Llandaff's golden run of form took them to the semi-final against Exeter, a side that had only conceded one goal in its group game (this fact being assisted by the fact that Exeter had a goalkeeper who was almost 8 foot tall). The game was very close with the Llandaff defence and Alex Maxted in goal stoutly resisting almost all that was thrown at them. At the other end the boys struggled to break down the gargantuan Exeter defence, however, Llandaff eventually went one up following a goal from Titus Wing, only to see Exeter equalise. The game finished 1-1, and the travelling contingent of Llandaff parents realised that their nerves were about to be shredded by the ordeal of a sudden death, 'golden goal', knock out situation.  Both teams fought hard (but fair) and Llandaff eventually triumphed, the 'golden' goal scored by Conor Hughes putting Llandaff through to the final.

And so to the final with Llandaff up  against the hosts Magdalen College School, still the favourites having won every game in the competition - thus far.  Once more it was an extremely evenly contested game & despite numerous attempts on goal, the final score was level at 0-0. This meant that the parents had to call up reserve finger nails to chew themselves through another golden goal situation. However, the extra nails were not required, within seconds of the kick off a magnificent golden goal, from Conor Hughes, shooting from inside his own half, claimed victory. The Llandaff Cathedral boys were the 2010 Champions!

As Big Ron might have said, ‘the boys done well', with every member of the squad contributing to the tournament victory. All games were played in a tremendous spirit, and it was a victory for sportsmanship as well as football, with Titus Wing picking up the trophy for Sportsmanship.  The boys would like to thank the parents who travelled up to Oxford for their support.  The parents would like to thank the boys for making their week!

Following the tournament the boy & girl choristers joined forces with the choristers from the other choir schools to sing Evensong in the chapel. All rivalry was put aside & they all sang beautifully!