Footballers return from a triumphant New Delhi tour

A few weeks ago, the Woodstock Senior Boys Football Team went down to New Delhi to take part in a tournament and friendly matches against several New Delhi based schools. The tour was a great success for the team, highlighted by their victory of the Nine-a-side tournament at the British School.

Below is a short report of the New Delhi trip, written by Tim Raby, coach of the Senior Boys team and staff member at the Rokeby student residence.

The tournament we played in was a Nine-a-side tournament organised and hosted by British School. We beat the British School 3-0. In our second game,and beat the athletically renowned Modern School 3-0 as well, thus winning the tournament.

We lost 2-0 to G.D.Goenka School at their ground. That was also Nine-a-side and was in fact played on a really weird sized pitch and goals. The boys weren't too disappointed about that match. We got a tour around the campus in golf buggies and were shown inside the school's 5-star facilities!

We stayed at Pathways School and were hosted by (former Woodstock staff) Vinay Mangalwadi.

We played Pathways twice in 11-a-side games, winning 3-1 on Friday morning then drawing 1-1 on Sunday. Pathways were very determined to win the second match: we held them off but also missed lots of chances ourselves. Our crucial equalizer was scored by Captain Kakivi Chishi in the last 10 minutes of the game. We were the stronger side but they were determined and they chased everything.

It was the last competitive match for the Kakivi, Temjenmoa "Moa" Jamir and Pranit Budhatokhi, three seniors who have important playersl all season and have put in some fantastic performances. Kakivi is the hardworking, hard-tackling midfielder and an inspirational captain. Moa is the talented winger who scores the most impressive goals, and Pranit is our fearless central defender.

We also had support for every match from Delhi-based Woodstock parents who came to watch their sons and support the team.