IN the spring sunshine in Brittany, two Callington youth teams competed against 94 teams at the Challenge Du Printemps international football tournament.

The U10s and U12s always knew it was going to be a tough two-day competition against a number of youth squads of French first division sides.

This became even harder when they found out that German giants Shalke 04 were attending, along with Sampdoria from Italy, Standard Liege of Belgium and Senec from Slovakia. These clubs were joined by Alexandrov of Russia, Dakar of Senegal, and the star of the show, Curitiba of Brazil.

With the system the European leagues use for age ranges, Callington were always going to suffer as they had to mix teams up to qualify, the U10s in particular found it tough going.

Their first game was against FC Nantes and they were unlucky to lose 2-0. They then played PL Lambe of Brittany and suffered the same scoreline before completing the first day with a 4-0 reverse against the host club, GDR Guipavas.

They fared slightly better on the Sunday but finished the tournament with two 1-0 defeats, against OC Vannes, whose adult side compete in French division 2, and St Guenole, another Breton team.

There was better news for the U12s who had the daunting task of being the first team to meet the Brazilian stars of the future. Callington battled well before going down to a deflected late goal. They picked themselves up well to draw with top Breton side Bohars and finished the first day with a fine 4-0 victory over GDR Guipavas with Dan Ashman hitting a hat-trick while Blaine Sperring notched up the fourth.

They were undone again on Sunday to a single goal against Nantes but fought back to beat Plougonvelin 1-0 with Ashman again on target, securing third place in their mini league and a place in the Challenge d'Espoirs competition.

The first game saw them draw 0-0 with Coataudon before they claimed their biggest scalp of the day with a 1-0 victory over Laval, courtesy of a fifth tournament goal by Ashman. Needing a win to progress to the semi-finals they found themselves up against another French first division set up in Lorient, and after battling hard, they sadly exited the tournament by losing 1-0.

Team managers Tony Horton and Martyn Hill were full of praise for their sides' determination and thanked the organisers both in Guipavas and Callington who made the trip possible.