PIRAN Friend, a pupil at St Petroc’s School in Bude, has been making waves locally with his football skills for a number of years.

Recently, though, his talent has been spotted and he has earned a place in the Arsenal U9s squad. After a number of training and selection sessions in Exeter, Piran was picked to play for Arsenal U9s against South Wales U9s.

To top off a fantastic afternoon, Piran played at centre forward and, having made an assist for Arsenal’s first goal, he then scored a wonderful goal of his own!

St Petroc’s headmaster, Dan Thornburn, said: “We are absolutely thrilled and delighted for Piran, who is such a talented footballer. It is wonderful that children are able to experience playing in such an environment and I know how hard Piran has worked at his games to be given this chance; there is seldom a break that goes by without Piran finding some time to play football!

“We are very proud of him and he’s sure to have a loyal Cornish following if he fulfills his dream to play at the Emirates stadium!”

There have been lots of notable sporting successes from both past and present St Petroc’s pupils recently. They have a current national indoor skiing champion in their ranks and a number of former pupils are riding high in major surfing competitions, including Emily Currie and Kit Innes who surf for Great Britain.

Year 6 teacher and director of sport, Ben Hilton, is also an England Counties rugby player. Pupils at the school are given huge opportunities to play sport every day of the week, on top of their normal curriculum PE lessons.