On February 25th, two teams from St. Corban's competed in the Kildare finals of the SPAR FAI Primary 5s, an annual 5-a-side soccer competition organised by FAI Schools. One of our teams narrowly missed out on winning their group. Our other team won all of their games, including a tense penalty shoot-out in the semi-final, and were crowned champions of Kildare in the large schools section.

This team went forward to represent our school and county at the Mid-Leinster finals in Portlaoise on April 13th. Here they came up against the Kilkenny and Offaly champions. The boys performed excellently, winning both games (3-2 and 3-0) to progress to the Leinster finals which will take place in Navan on April 28th. Our goalscorers on the day were Matthew (2), Brandon, Cian and Jack and one own-goal was scored in our favour.

Very well done to both teams, and best of luck to our A team in Navan.

St. Corban's B Team: Sam Blackburne, Niall Murray, Liam Marshall, Elliot Beirne, Jack Sheridan, Jack McKevitt, Daniel Lenehan, Dylan Murtagh.

St. Corban's A Team: Daniel Glancy, Andrew Osborne, Matthew McCarrick, Brandon Leonard, Robert Fitzgerald, Daire Guerin, Jack Rodgers, Cian Richardson.

Well done to the sixth class boys who represented Kildare in the recent Mid Leinster finals of the SPAR FAI Primary School 5s competition. Having come through the county finals in Kilcullen the boys again represented themselves, our school and our county proudly. They finished as runners-up in Mid Leinster, only narrowly missing out on progression to the Leinster Finals. Congratulations to Edenderry who made it through.

Our fourth, fifth and sixth classes had their Sports Day today. The boys enjoyed activities like unihoc, basketball, relay racing, puc fada, cic fada, penalty shootout and volleyball to name but a few! The glorious weather added to everyone's enjoyment of the day. A big thank you to Mr. Rock for organising everything again for one of the highlights of the school calendar. Our first, second and third classes look forward to their Sports Day on Wednesday.

Cormac McAnallen was a brilliant teacher and sportsperson. He played Gaelic football at senior inter-county level for Tyrone.

Cormac died suddenly on 2 March 2004, aged 24. Despite his relatively short career, he won almost every honour in the game. He was often captain of successful teams, and was known as a particularly inspirational captain.

In 2004 the Cormac McAnallen Cup, the cup that Ireland and Australia play for in the International Rules Series, was named in his honour.

The 2013 Series was notable for the inclusion of an Australian team made up of exclusively indigenous players, known as the Indigenous All Stars.

We were very lucky that Tadhg and Cillian Whytock's mam Tracey could bring the cup to our school for the day.

Kildare footballer and captain Eamonn Callaghan, a former St. Corban's student, visited us at the end of the year to present medals and trophies to all the boys who were successful in sports this year. Eamonn took time out of a busy week to visit us and speak to the boys and we are very grateful.

The U 13 Cumann na mBunscoil A Hurling Final was played on Thursday 13th June in Moorefield. The teams were St. Corban’s BNS and Kilcock BNS. Our school team was made up of Aaron Lowry, Mark Logan, Rossa Stapleton, Liam Walsh, Cian Duffy, Ross Waters, Alex Beirne, Al Bergin, Seán Clince, Ferran O’Sullivan, Paddy McDermott, Paul Dockery, Rian Monaghan, Murray O’Byrne, Dermot Hanifin, Ben O’Reilly, Brian Tobin, Jack Cleary, Craig Kennedy and Ian Blackburne (capt.). We beat Kilcock comprehensively adding to our winning streak in the U 13 competition.

In the group stages, the first match was played against Maynooth who went home disappointed after a tremendous win for St. Corban’s. The other teams we played were Celbridge, Kilcock and Leixlip.

In the semi-final, we played Leixlip in Clane. That match was our most challenging but we still managed to beat Leixlip comfortably in the end to qualify for the final with Kilcock.

Our school team was coached by Mr. Broderick and Mr. O’Reilly. The two teachers did a great job and now our school has won the tournament 7 years in a row! The team had huge success and hopefully next year’s team can keep the title held by our school.

Jack Cleary

Our students enjoyed their sports days this week with the Junior Sports Day taking place on Tuesday and the Senior Sports Day on Wednesday. As always they were two fun filled days. Some of the activities included basketball, long puck, unihoc, obstacle course, relay race, penalty shoot-out and the ever popular wellie throw! Thank you to Mr. Rock for organising the two days. Below are some pictures from the Senior Sports Day.