150 teams involving over 1200 young players converged into Kilsby Lane for Rugby Town Juniors 15th Annual football festival, and despite the overcast skies and dull weather, an excellent weekend of soccer was had by all. Teams from Kettering, Coventry, Birmingham and Leicester turned up hoping to catch the eye of scouts from Villa, Leicester and even Manchester Utd, and with over 510 individual matches being played, they had plenty of opportunities to spot the stars of the future!

Saturday saw U10s through to U14s with the U7s through to U9s playing on the Sunday. The U10s saw two Massey Ferguson teams compete against Kettering and Khalsa Jnrs in the semi-finals with both Massey teams coming out on top. And despite playing each other in the final, both teams conducted themselves excellently with Massey Ferguson B side winning 4-0.

U11s semi – finals were contested by two Hinckley sides, the Tigers and Wanderers, against Binley Woods and Gregory Celtic Emeralds respectively. Unfortunately luck was not on their side for both Hinckley teams, meaning the Emeralds and Binley Woods meeting in the final. Emeralds narrowly failed to shine allowing Binley Woods to win 2-1.

Blaby and Whetstone and Allexton & Newparks took on two host Rugby Town teams in the U12s semi –finals but it was not to be for the hosts with both sides going down 3-2. Allexton & Newparks proved to be too strong for Blaby and took the U12s title by 3 goals to nil.

U13s saw a very entertaining semi –final with Admirals and Hawkesmill 87 sharing a seven-goal thriller. Admirals won the game 4-3 to set up a final against Rugby Ajax, who themselves beat Rugby Town Jnrs in the other semi-final 2-0. And it was Rugby Ajax who triumphed in the final beating Admirals 2-1.

The last final of day on Saturday was against Rugby Town Boys and Futsal, who both beat Sporting Continental and Warwick Juniors by a single goal to nil. Again, the hosts Rugby Town were unlucky, losing by 2-0 to Futsal.

Sunday saw no better weather but it still did not dampen the atmosphere and enjoyment of the 84 teams taking part.

The sevens and eights age groups were non-competitive (no knock out stages) due to FA rules but all players taking part in the group games received a medal and certificate. Performances and attitudes were excellent from these young players, which was a joy to watch. The day also saw some very young players from Ibstock, Sporting Lions, Whetstone, Long Buckby and Rugby, sampling a tournament atmosphere for the first time. They thoroughly enjoyed the day also.

U9s did however see some competitive action on Sunday with Leamington Brakes, Lutterworth Swifts, Rugby Ajax, Lawford Colts, two Rugby Town Eagles teams, Pegasus and Dunlop Juniors all progressing from the group stages. Brakes, Pegasus, Ajax and Dunlop secured places in the semi finals with Leamington losing out to Ajax 2-1 and Dunlop beating Pegasus 3-0. An enthralling, closely-contested final saw Dunlop score the solitary goal in the last seconds to win the match.

Rugby Town JFC would like to extend its thanks to all players, parents, team managers and referees for ensuring the weekend went without a hitch, but would most like to thank the clubhouse staff who worked tirelessly for two days to keep everyone fed and watered! Secondly, many thanks to the car park stewards who kept the traffic moving at the beginning of both days.

Jason Husain