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On Wednesday 5 October, the Marist College Football Club arrived at St. Clare's on the last stop of their European Tour. Kevin Hennessy, the St. Clare's FC Coach along with members of the squad welcomed Pat Bellgard, Terence Pereira and twenty six players to the school. After supper that evening the St. Clare's football squad hosted the guests around the College, Summertown and the city centre.

Match report 1
There were two matches played on Thursday evening at the Cherwell School playing fields. In the first game, St. Clare's 'A' found themselves 2 goals down at half time. This was despite the best efforts of our defence, (Jedrzej, Dogukan, Kilian and Christiaan). In the second half the team rose to the challenge. With strong running from Sebastiano and Nick Hayes coupled with the tackling of Wei, our strikers (John and Lorenzo) started discovering gaps. In a fifteen-minute spell, thanks to two goals from John, we were back in contention. St. Clare's confidence was growing and we could have taken the lead when a Lorenzo volley went just wide of the post. The passing movements between players caused problems for the Marist back four with Ben Tollington making surging runs down the left flank. In the last two minutes of the game, Marists were awarded a penalty and the striker made no mistake. In the end, Marist College finished stronger. St. Clare's FC have work to do to improve their fitness level to compete for ninety minutes. The positive from the game was the tenacity with which the players fought back from 2-0 down.

Match report 2
In the second match, St. Clare's 'B' went ahead after twenty minutes with a well-taken goal by Ben Hanbury-Aggs. A cross from the right hand side bounced in front of the midfielder and he had no hesitation in finding the net with a right foot shot. Yet again the defence was on top. Vincent, Adji, Martin and Hai were dealing well with the Marist threat. In midfield, Leonid and Ilya were dictating the proceedings. Marist scored shortly after half time to level things up. However Assistant Manager Ian Lee ensured that St. Clare's shared the spoils of victory with some astute substitutions. The game ended 1-1.

Post-match hospitality
There was a post match banquet in the Dining Hall that evening where St. Clare's new Principal, Paula Holloway, presented the medals to the winning teams. She officially welcomed the touring side to the College and explained that their visit was evidence of St. Clare's mission of advancing international education and understanding.

Man of the match awards
There were also four special 'man of the match' awards. The St. Clare's winners were Vincent Graw and John Petitjean. St. Clare's FC also made a special presentation of a shield to commemorate the Marist College visit to the College.

These two days have been successful for the St. Clare's football club on and off the field. It was such a pleasure to see twenty-five students from the Banbury and Bardwell Rd sites compete together in a team. They also hosted the touring side on the Wednesday night and made them feel very welcome. It was a nice sign at the end of the dinner on Thursday night when the Australian Coaches had problems in gathering all their players together to depart. They were scattered around the Dining Hall and the Sugar House. Apart from the efforts of the players the following deserve a special mention:

• Nick Lewis and the Catering Team for the two evening meals and lunch. The presentation banquet on Thursday evening was special.
• Kevin Ryce and Jon Halligan for the good job on refereeing the matches. Jon's assistance after the match to deal with First Aid enquires was invaluable.
• Neil Beckley, the Finance Director at Cherwell School. Neil ensured that St. Clare's had access to both fields, nets and parking on their Open evening
• Brian Woods for allowing the Marist teams to use the dressing rooms and showers of the Oxford Harlequins Rugby club.
• The many student supporters from the school who cheered on the home teams.