Capital trip awaits youngsters

 

‘London’s Calling’ for youngsters from Cotford St Luke Primary School after they booked themselves a place at this year’s Aviva Premiership Finals Day at Twickenham.

The schoolchildren will head to the home of English rugby on May 25 after they were crowned the Exeter Chiefs MBNA Tackling Numbers Programme champions at the end of cluster festival held at Taunton School.

Having tackled the inclement elements for the past four months, there was glorious sunshine for the festival, which brought together primary schools from in and around Taunton, all of whom have taken part in the MBNA programme.

The rugby-themed programme, which has been delivered in schools by Chiefs community coaches Marc Dibble and Tom Viljoen, makes learning about numbers fun, exciting and rewarding, whilst inspiring children to both improve their numeracy skills and their physical health.

With a round-robin format for the day, pupils from Spaxton, Cotford St Luke, St John & St Francis, Nether Stowey, St Andrews, St Georges and Long Sutton battled it out for the honour of representing the Chiefs at HQ.

From the outset, the standard was excellent and following some hard-fought encounters, it was St Georges, Spaxton, Long Sutton and Cotford St Luke who made it through to the semi-finals.

St Georges were the first through to the final as they saw off Spaxton, soon to be joined by Cotford St Luke, who overcame their rivals from Long Sutton.

As for the final itself, there was little to choose between either side in a tense showdown that saw the lead swap on numerous occasions, before it finishing deadlocked – after extra-time – at 5-5.

With no time left to extend the competition, the two well-matched sides were eventually split by the toss of a coin.

Commenting on the day, Chiefs Community Manager, Marc Dibble, said: “Once again the MBNA Tackling Numbers Programme has proved a huge success, not just for the club, but for all of the participating schools. Getting youngsters learning about numbers, whilst at the same time getting an introduction into tag rugby is what it is all about for us.

“Again the take-up from all the schools involved has been fantastic and that was highlighted in what was a great end of programme festival held at Taunton School, who we’d also like to thank for hosting the event.”