Grass roots football goes from strength to strength in Cambridgeshire which is reflected in the growing success year on year of Cambridgeshire FA football festivals.
Girls, boys, women, men, schools and clubs benefited from the busy spring and summer calendar.
April saw the Primary Schools Finals with south Cambs and City of Cambridge schools competing for the final festival of the season. Perfect weather allowed all the schools teams of boys and girls to enjoy the group stages, efficiently run by Cambridgeshire FA young leaders, with 1 team from each region progressing to the final, supported by the regional schools. Eventual winners were Milton School.
31 May and 1 June were the dates for a bumper Girls and Womens’ festival with almost 1,000 competitors over the weekend.
The younger girls kicked off on the Saturday with U10s through to U13s. Special guest Narinder Dhami, author of ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ was there to sign autographs and conduct research for her next set of books based on girls football. The fun had by the players and the skills on show will have hopefully provided her with plenty of positive reflect how beautiful girls football really is.
Sunday’s guest, Arsenal and England player, Alex Scott was on hand to sign autographs and join in team photos. One extremely optimistic manager even gave her a contract to sign, needless to say she decided to stay with her current team for the time being.
The ladies tournament saw a number of teams provide a strong challenge with one group being decided on penalties. Eventual winners were Cambridge United ‘A’ who also represented Cambridgeshire in the Umbro 5s regional finals.
A special mention needs to be made to the referees and young leaders who worked extremely hard over the weekend allowing the matches to run smoothly and gathering and collating all the results. The festivals would not be possible without these volunteers hard work and commitment.
The success of the festival was a huge testament to the hard work of Victoria ‘Tor’ Morley who, after 3 years as Girls’ and Women’s development Officer at Cambridgeshire FA, organised the tournament as her final major event before leaving start a new career.
The Mini Soccer World Cup brought Coldhams Common to life on 21 and 22 June. The Saturday event, aimed at bringing the diverse Cambridgeshire communities together through football, was for adult teams. The mens countries totalled 48 with countries adopted including Switzerland, Cameroon, Italy, China and even England in a major tournament! Eventual victors were Mexico.
The women’s competition was thrilling with both semi finals going to penalties. USA took the trophy beating Spain in the final.
The children got their opportunity the following day with girls U13 being represented by USA and Spain
Mixed team played at U 9s, Under 11s, and boys teams competed at U13s and U15s.
With sunny conditions the festival could have been on another continent! But whatever country this took place in, in whatever language, it was clear the name of the game was football and by the obvious enjoyment it brought to those involved the message was it is the best game in the world!