Australia have won the World Cup in a nail-biting final against Wales.

...No, you didn’t read that wrong.

It was the Medway Mini Youth Games World Cup yesterday, with each primary school in the area assigned a country to represent.

Bizarre was an understatement with 2014’s World Cup hosts Brazil (Temple Mill) coming bottom of their group in the Medway games, while lowest ranked Australia (Featherby) took the trophy against Wales (Thames View) - who didn’t even qualify for the actual international games.

A total of 52 teams, each from separate schools, descended onto the Anchorians sports club in Darland Avenue, Gillingham from 9am to 4pm.

20 extra teams had to be added to the World Cup’s 32 to make up the numbers, meaning nations like Wales and Israel joined the ranks.

Taking it all very seriously, the youngsters shrieked in delight and despair as the day went on and they won and lost.

Even the ice cream van was only visited very casually, when they had time in between their frenzied practices for almost constant matches.

A series of eight minute one-way group stage matches filtered the teams into three tournaments: The World Cup for the top 16, The World Plate for the middling groups and the World Bowl for those who scored the least amount of points.

England (The Pilgrim School) ended up in the Plate, while Wales, Northern Ireland (Fairview) and Scotland (Napier) qualified for the Cup tournament.

It was Chili (Hempstead) who won the Plate and Bulgaria (St Margaret’s) who won the Bowl.

• For full coverage of the event, including a 12-page picture special and full results, see next Friday’s Medway Messenger.