ISFA Sixes

IFSA Six-a-Side Tournament

The Public Schools Six-a-Side tournament, as it was first known began in the 1950s, and was traditionally played at the end of the Christmas term. It was viewed by many as the Public Schools Championship, since the ISFA Cup did not exist at that time and was generally taken very seriously. The format has changed little over the years but the change of date in recent times has led to several schools no longer taking part and many regarding the day more as a training exercise than as a life or death competition.

Charterhouse does not have a very good history in the competition: we hosted the tournament in January 1960 but, that apart, did not really feature in the final stages until 2003 when Charlie Ingham’s team won the competition. Last year, despite scoring only one goal in the group phase, Anthony Beddows led his side to the final where a depleted and exhausted squad just lost to hosts, St Bede’s Manchester.

This year’s competition was held at a soggy Winchester and the Charterhouse team set out more in hope than expectation and with some still nursing bruises from the exertions of playing the OCs the day before.

Our first group match saw us overrun by a Bolton side who seemed to know what they were doing. We certainly did not and Michael Manby’s goal led a charmed life in the first half, particularly during one pinball moment when the ball hit Charlie Jamieson twice and the post once before being scrambled to safety. A few words of advice from MJB at half-time saw an improved second half showing but when Harry Walford scored a spectacular winner there was still a feeling that somehow we had stolen the points. Match 2 on the same bog pitted us against hosts Winchester who were fresh from a 2-0 victory in their opening match. The Winchester boys were very large and highly intelligent, but not really that good and a 1-0 win courtesy of a Tom Kimmins penalty was the least we deserved. Already qualified MJB and RPN spent the third group match calculating whether it would be better to go through as winners or runners up. In the end it was all purely academic as both Bolton and Winchester ended up with only 5 points, but Jack Ryder-Smith was not to know that as he scored the goal of the tournament with a reverse flick with tuck and pike, degree of difficulty 3.6. Three group matches and three 1-0 wins. Dreams of last year began to surface over lunch but they were quickly dispelled as Ardingly scored twice in the first five minutes. Charterhouse battled gamely but ultimately in vain and, despite pulling one back through a sweet strike from Charlie Watson, we were eliminated at the first hurdle.

Despite the fact that the six-a-side tournament is always something of a lottery, the four semi-finalists all looked strong and will no doubt be the teams to watch out for this season. For the record, Millfield beat St Bede’s, Hailsham on penalties in their semi final and went on to record a 1-0 victory over QEGS Blackburn who had seen off Manchester GS in the other semi final.