Tragically, Paul lost his battle with cancer in 1996.

Mark and his family gratefully donated a trophy to honour Paul's memory for a Knockout Soccer competition that began in 1999 in the Tweed Zone.

I would like to thank Mark and his family for their support in the creation of this competition.

The competition began in June with five schools nominating sides :

• St. Joseph's Tweed Heads;
• St. Anthony's Kingscliff;
• Mt. St. Patrick's Murwillumbah;
• St. James Banora Point; and

• St. Joseph's South Murwillumbah.

The first match was a knockout game between St. Anthony's Kingscliff and Mt. St. Patrick's Murwillumbah. The winner of this game would join the other three schools who had been drawn to go straight through to the Semi Finals, while the loser would be knocked out of the competition.

What ensued was an entertaining match where Mt. St. Pat's served notice as being a major player in the competition. Despite all of the St. Anthony's players efforts,

especially those of their goalkeeper, Chris Ismail, who made a number of outstanding saves, Mt. St. Pat's dominated the match.

St. Anthony's scored first through Mitchell Gleave but Mt. St. Pat's came storming back with goals from Matthew Bruggy, Nick Foster, Jackson Phelps and Dane Pritchard. It was a powerhouse performance from Mt. St. Pat's.

This therefore meant that Mt. St. Pat's would play St. Joseph's Tweed in the first Semi Final.

St. Joseph's started the game strongly, scoring in the opening minutes through Mark Bailey. However Mt. St. Pat's were immediately stirred into action and began to take control of the match. They scored goals consistently throughout the rest of the match. Nick Forrester scored twice, Dane Pritchard scored twice and Brendan McMahon scored once.

St. Joseph's fought on bravely, with wholehearted efforts from Kennedy Dunn-Viera, Justin Walsh and Mitchell Bruce, however Mt. St. Pat's dominated play, with each player playing an important part in the outcome of the match.

In the second Semi Final St. Joseph's South Murwillumbah played St. James for the right to meet Mt. St. Pat's in the final. St. James started the better team and Shayne Oddmark scored after a long run and chipped shot that lobbed over the St. Joseph's keeper. But after ten minutes St. Joseph's found their feet and began to hold possession.

Lucas Scholes scored at the near post after cutting back from the left side and Simon Morrison scored a great goal after beating a number of defenders at the edge of the box and rifling his shot into the top of the net.

After half time St. James started to come back into the game before Dylan Breust put the game beyond their reach with the winning goal for St. Joseph's just before full time.

The 3^rd/4^th place playoff pitted St. James against St. Joseph's Tweed. This was one of the most entertaining games of the whole competition. The two teams were evenly matched as the final scoreline suggests. The match went from end to end with St Joseph's scoring first with a goal to Nick Kolovos. The lead was short lived however with Adrian Archer scoring the equalising goal. The action never let up and eventually Shayne Oddmark scored the winner much to the delight of the St. James crowd. 

The Final matched the form team of the competition, Mt. St. Pat's in a derby game with, St. Joseph's South Murwillumbah.

Mt. St. Pat's signalled their intentions early with a goal in the opening minutes to Matthew McIntyre before St. Joseph's found their feet and started to pressure the Mt. St. Pat's defence. A tight match followed with few chances, although the St. Joseph's goalkeeper, Connah Chapman made a great save diving at the feet of an oncoming attacker. Tom Cordner, the Mt. St. Pat's keeper, made a similar save in the second half but Mt. St. Pat's stepped up a gear for the closing ten minutes and scored twice through Brendan McMahon and Mark Thiele.

It was a fitting finale to the competition as Mt. St. Pat's had dominated each game they had played in. Mark Wilson presented the Paul Wilson Memorial trophy to the Mt. St. Pat's captain to the enormous delight of the Mt. St. Pat's supporters.

Organiser Andrew Maslen and winning coach Mr. Cordner. 
Mark Wilson presents the trophy. 

If there are any schools who would be interested in participating in next years competition, or want to make some enquiries about it, please contact me, Andrew Maslen, at [email protected] or on my mobile 0412740569.