5^th October 2016

The first Andover Schools 7’s tournament kicked off on Wednesday 5^th October. There were 6 different teams from 4 different schools of who competed on the first tournament day of the season. There were 15 fixtures played, with 19 goals scored, often with draws and one goal margins separating teams in closely contested matches.

By the end of the fixtures, when each team had played their 5 games, the top 4 teams in the table were separated by only 2 points and goal difference. The team who finished top of the table after the first tournament day was John Hanson A, with a total of 9 points – meaning that they also lead the way in regards to point scoring for the season ahead.

14^th December 2016

The second tournament date took place on Wednesday 14^th December. This tournament day would see a unique dual format; with separate tournaments for the Year 7s and the Year 8s taking place simultaneously. Each of the 4 schools who partook in the tournament (Harrow Way, John Hanson, Test Valley and Wellington Academy) each fielded both a Year 7s team and a Year 8s team to compete in both tournaments respectively.

Each tournament was a miniature league format; with each of the four teams playing each other once, playing three games in total. And both tournaments were interesting in their own way.

The Year 7s tournament was an extraordinary goal-fest, with 25 goals scored in only 6 matches… that’s just over 4 goals scored per match. 21 of those goals were scored by the top two teams in the group, splitting the goals almost directly in half between them with 11 goals for John Hanson and 10 goals for Harrow Way respectively. It is strange how the match between the runaway top goal-scoring teams in the group settled by the one and only goal, and it was Harrow Way who topped the table by beating John Hanson in their final league match by 1 goal to nil.

The Year 8s tournament on the other hand was a very tight affair. In fact, there were only 8 goals scored in the 6 matches played; with 1-0 being the score in 3 of those 6 matches; indicating how closely contested the tournament was. But of course, one team did have to be crowned the tournament winner on the day; and that winning team was Wellington Academy, who won all three of their matches without conceding a single goal.

29^th March 2017

The fourth and final Andover Schools 7’s tournament of the season kicked off on Wednesday 29^th March. There were a total of 10 teams from 6 different colleges who competed on the on the final day of the season. The teams were split into two groups of five teams; where each team would play each other once. The top 3 teams would then play against the team in the other group in their corresponding group position.

With 23 matches played, there were a total of 24 goals – with many tight affairs with draws and small margins separating teams. In fact, there were tight affairs regarding the league standings; in Group A the top 2 teams were separated by goal difference, as too were the second and third placed teams in Group B.

Throughout the year, 7 schools participated across the four tournament dates - with over 10 teams taking part.