Lots of fun at girls football competition
The South Cambs School Sports Partnership recently hosted a fun afternoon of football at Cambourne Football Club for girls in Years 5&6.
Sixteen schools took part in the competition which was aimed at introducing new girls or teams to the game of football and giving them the opportunity to represent their school in a fun and friendly competition.
The schools taking part included Histon & Impington Park, Dry Drayton, Linton Heights, Great Abington, Jeavons Wood, The Vine, Monkfield Park, University of Cambridge, The Meadow, Bassingbourn, Hatton Park, Swavesey, Barton and Coton.
Matches were 7-a-side with roll on, roll off subs with teams getting to play against lots of different schools in quick 7min matches which were superbly refereed by a group of 10 Girls Football Activators from Cambourne Village College.
After the initial round robin group matches teams were organised into Divisions 1-4 based on their results. The four teams qualifying for Division 1 were Monkfield Park, Great Abington, University of Cambridge Primary and Girton. Teams then played all the other teams in their division to work out overall finishing positions and it was the team from Girton who finished as overall winners with Uni of Cambridge finishing runners up. Division 2 was won by Hatton Park whilst Coton won Division 3 and Uni of Camb 2 won Div 4.
A special Spirit of the Games award was presented to the team from Linton Heights for demonstrating great teamwork and team spirit on the day. On top of this all of the girls in the team were completely new to football having never even attended a school club before but they gave it 100% in every match and even scored a couple of goals which sparked wild celebrations. They left with massive smiles on their faces though and keen to go back and join the girls football club at school.
Claire McDonnell, South Cambs SSP Partnership Manager said,
“It was a lovely afternoon of football and great to be able to give so many girls there first opportunity to play competitive football. They had a really fun time playing with their friends and representing their schools and they all left with massive smiles on their faces.
We hope that some of them will continue to play back in school and some may even want to join their local Weetabix Wildcats session or girls club. We are slowly seeing more and more opportunities for girls to play football in schools and the community which is great as we work towards ensuring all girls have equal access to football.
Our next event is on Wednesday 8th March as part of the national #LetGirlsPlay Biggest Ever Football Session where we are working with local clubs and schools to get as many girls playing football on the same day as possible. If you are a local club or school or club and would like to get involved, please get in touch” cmcdonnell@combertonvc.org