HERMITAGE Primary School retained their title as Helensburgh and Lomond’s Christian Aid primary school football champions after a keenly-fought contest at Hermitage Academy.

As usual, a very large crowd of spectators attended to cheer on the players and perfect weather conditions helped produce a real festival of football with plenty of skill, team-spirit and sportsmanship on show.

Eight local schools took part in the cometition, with Hermitage and Cardross seeing off the challenges of Colgrain and Hermitage in Group A, while St Joseph’s and Rhu qualified from Group B ahead of John Logie Baird and Lomond School.

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Two exciting matches resulted in Hermitage and Cardross progressing through to the final where a talented Hermitage side proved just too strong for their opponents and sealed a comfortable victory to lift the inaugural Karen Holborn Memorial Shield.

A spokesperson for the organisers said: “Thanks are due to a number of groups for all their hard work and effort behind the scenes; to the Christian Aid team, to Martin Caldwell – our Active Schools Coordinator at Live Argyll, to our sponsor Helensburgh Toyota, and last but not least to Ardencaple FC for facilitating yet another tremendously successful tournament.”

Ardencaple chairman Craig Holborn said the tournament reinforced the club’s commitment to the local community and thanked all the schools for participating; their players, their teachers and coaches and also their friends and families for supporting the event.

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He also thanked the referees for officiating and Martin O’Brien Bardon for his work behind the camera all evening.

Finally, he expressed his family’s gratitude to the Caple committee for their wonderful gesture in donating the Karen Holborn Memorial Shield in memory of his late wife.

Craig’s final task of the evening was to select Ross Fulton as this year’s Player of the Tournament, which makes it two in a row for the young Hermitage skipper.