The Pines Primary School in Red Lodge celebrates winning first Forest Heath Schools Games event at Great Heath Academy in Mildenhall

The Pines Primary School was able to celebrate its maiden Forest Heath Schools Games victory on Tuesday.

The Red Lodge-based school, which opened in September 2018, saw their pupils come out on top in the Year 3 and 4 Mixed Mini Soccer Festival, which was hosted at Great Heath Academy in Mildenhall.

Forest Heath Sports Partnership manager Ian Jackson said: “The Pines has not long been open and they’ve not been able to enter many of our competitions before because of numbers.

“It was great to see them come along and congratulations to them on their victory.

“We’re a rural area and the vast majority of our schools are small, so it’s great to be able to give as many of them as possible – including The Pines – the chance to take part.”

Jackson was also full of praise for the match officials, all of whom were Newmarket Academy students aged between 12 and 15.

He added: “We were very happy with the whole tournament, but especially the young officials. We got lots of great feedback on them.

“We generally don’t have officials that young but with the players being a bit younger we decided to give them a chance.

“Some of them were apprehensive beforehand but they really enjoyed it and can’t wait to do it again.”

Result: 1. The Pines, 2. Kettlefields, 3. Forest, 4. Beck Row, 5= Cheveley, 5= Exning 1, 5= Moulton, 5= St Mary’s 1, 9. Fordham, 10. Ditton Lodge 2, 11= Ditton Lodge 1, 11= St Mary’s 2, 13. Paddocks, 14. Exning 2, 15= Laureate, 15= St Louis, 17= Great Heath, 17= West Row. Fair Play Shield: St Louis.

* Last week’s Under-11s competition was won by Newmarket-based All Saints.