After school on Thursday 27th April a team of four children from year five accompanied Miss Allsop and a parent (myself) to Haslingfied Primary School for the first qualifying round of the competition. For our children the event was arranged at very short notice and unfortunately clashed with the joint schools concert at Stratton Upper School that night. The children were welcomed by the host school and the organisers and were offered refreshments upon arrival. They were all a little nervous and excited and unsure as to what it was going to be like.

A total of ten schools took part and this was one of seven qualifying rounds. A suduko and a wordsearch featuring mathematical terms were given to the teams to work on during any spare time and the interval at half-time. As planned, the challenge started promptly at 4.30 pm with a quick run through of the rules and then straight in to the questions. There were group questions and then some bonus questions. There was a test of memory, description and understanding whereby two of each team had to look very briefly at a part of a picture and then describe what they had seen, without using their hands, to the rest of the team. The other two then had to draw the pictures. This was quite difficult and the children describing had to sit on their hands to stop themselves from using them. There was also a round about estimating and our children did particularly well here. It involved being shown or told about items which they then had to estimate the size of. A break for refreshments and fresh air was taken about half way through before returning for the last part which was a group round. The whole contest ended at 6 pm with the winners of that round being awarded a cup. The pupils representing Gamlingay Village College did not get through to the next round but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were a credit to the school, behaving impeccably and working very well as a team.

Many thanks to Haslingfield Primary School for being such good hosts, to Miss Allsop for organising the opportunity and the children for entering and doing their best.

Well done.

20 pupils enrolled to take part in the Sport Evolution Rugby training after school on Mondays. It has proved a great success and very popular and the coach is enjoying it too. He recently wrote: " Tell everyone they were brilliant. It was really nice to work with kids who listen - it makes the hour and a half drive home worth it"

Well Done!

We are proud of all the children. All the games were played in good spirit and on and off the pitch he children were an asset to the school.
We also have some good players to look forward to in the future
Hoorah!
Mr Crosland

Our First School and Village College pupils took part in this two hour concert, held at Stratton at the end of April.

The First School pupils sang Yellow Submarine and The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers; the College choir sang Al Slosha and You Raise Me Up, which might be familiar to some parents from the choir’s extensive repertoire. The College boys vocal group also amused us greatly with a rural ditty entitled Fling it There! Well done lads!

It was lovely also to see village children singing in the Dunton choir, and particular mention should be made of Ella Hunt whose violin duet in front of over 200 parents was a very brave performance. Mum, accompanying these young 7 year olds on the piano must have felt very proud, (and naturally nervous).

The schools joined together to sing No Wars Will Stop Us Singing and completed the evening with Believe. Thank you to all the children and teachers involved

Boys

We started our journey with a 0-0 draw against Great Barford, both teams played exceptionally well although the Gamlingay boys could have won after creating more chances. Our next game was against the weakest team in the group, but we were held to a 0-0 draw, although Joseph and Dominic had a few chances to score. The next game had to be won if Gamlingay were not to leave the competition. The game went off to a cracking start after Gamlingay dominated with chances for Louis and Jack, but the keeper made some good saves. But then a cracking pass from Dominic set up Jake to score. In the end Gamlingay got through after exceptional play by Jake who scored us the goal that mattered. Both Gamlingay and Great Barford got through to the semi-finals as both teams had 5 points. The feeling of getting through to the semi-finals raised Gamlingay's sprit leading them to a 2-0 victory after 2 amazing goals from Dominic. Now the pressure was really on, Gamlingay were in the final playing Sandy Place. Sandy scored early on in the match but straight from kick off Joseph scored a cracking equaliser from the edge of the penalty box. The game was tense, Luke and Paul did some great defending keeping the opposition at bay. The final whistle was blown and it went into extra time. 30 seconds from the end Sandy had a sly shot but Johnny saved it but couldn't save the follow up. So in the end Sandy beat Gamlingay 2-1. Thanks to all the parents and teachers that helped us have a great day. Johnny -goalie, Luke -defence, Paul - defence, Louis - mainly defence, Jake - midfield, Jack- midfield, Dominic - attacking midfield

Girls

On Wednesday 26th April, Mr Crosland, Mrs Evans and Mrs Jakes took 8 Year 6/7 and 8 girls from Gamlingay Village College to participate in a football tournament at Sandy Place. These consisted of: Ellie (Yr 8), Lucy (Yr 8), Myself (Yr 8), Amy (Yr 8), Kayleigh (Yr 7), Zoe (Yr 7), Alice (Yr 6) and Florrie (Yr 6). Zoe kept the pressure on the other teams by trying to get the ball into the net with Lucy and Alice at her side and Florrie was trying to stop the ball coming into our net. Kayleigh, Ellie, Amy and I were playing as defenders and in midfield at most points in the game stopping the ball coming into our half of the pitch. We played Sandye Place and drew 0-0, we then played Walkers Crisps and lost 1-0 (but it was an unlucky goal!) and we then played Robert Bloomfield and drew 0-0 again. Overall we finished joint 3rd place and everyone had a brilliant night. The Year 8's just hope we get to do some more football at Stratton Upper School and would also like to say that Mr Crosland has now got some brilliant, all ready trained up, Year 6 & 7 girls for the following years. Ele (Right Defence)

On the 26th of April 2006, four year 8's, two year 7's and two year 6's, went to a football match at Sandy school for a game against the schools which had also gone there. I played defence along with Jess, Lucy played mid-field alongside Amy, Lucy was also captain, Florrie was the goalkeeper, Zoe played upfront alongside Alice, and Kayleigh who played defence, but throughout the games the positions swapped slightly and the reserve changed also. Two pitches were used and equal teams were placed on each team. Our first match was against Sandy which we drew nil-nil. After a little break we played the team in the 'Walkers Crisps' uniform which we lost one-nil. The third and final game which we played was against Robert Bloomfield which we drew again nil-nil. It was 10 points for a win, 5 points for a draw and 0 points for a loss. Our overall total was 10/15. This meant that we were in joint third place and unfortunately did not qualify for the next round. However I'm sure that we all enjoyed ourselves and that was the main thing. I would just like to thank Mrs Evans, Mrs Jakes, and Mr Crosland who took us and brought us back.

Lucy (Midfield-Captain)

On the way to the football match everyone was quite nervous, as we pulled up at Sandye school we could see other teams warming up. Then the two referees talked us through what was going to happen. We were put into two groups of four. We played Sandye first and drew against them nil, nil, then we played "Walkers Crisps" and they won one nil. The last team we played was Robert Bloomfield and we drew again, which meant we didn't get through to the next round but we came joint 3rd. We all had loads of fun. We would just like to say thank you to Mrs. Jakes and Mrs. Evans for taking us to Sandy and bringing us home safely. Thank you to Mr. Crosland for organising the players. Well done to the team which was: Lucy- Captain, Jess- Defender, Ele- Defender, Amy- Midfield, Zoe- Up front, Kayleigh- Defender, Alice- Up front and Florrie- Goal keeper Good luck to the future football teams for the girls and boys next year! From the present year eight team!

Thanks.