The popular District 6-a-side football competition took place on Sunday 13 July 2008 at Binfield Football Club. We entered 2 teams from Cubs and also a team of Beavers. You can read the match reports below and we also have pictures from the event.

2nd Bracknell Bears - District football champions 2008

Beavers

We don't have a match report for the Beavers competition but they are included in our photos

2nd Bracknell Bears - match report by Lynne Hughes

Sunday 13th July dawned bright and sunny as the awesome 2nd Bracknell "Bears" football team lined up for the annual district 6-a-side football tournament in Binfield. The team comprised of Sam B, Chris F, Jake G, Luke J, Matthew L, Ben M, Liam W and Cameron Y.

We were playing in a group with 4 other teams and the 2 winners of this league would go forward to the semi-final competition. To make it fair for all, each team was only permitted to field 2 ten-year-old players on the field at any one time. We had a strong combination of Chris, Luke and Ben - who were all 10 years old and who, thus, had to swap in and out during each match to ensure we complied with the rules.

Our first match was against the "4th Panthers". We had to play 7 minutes each way and we had 2 subs for each half of every match. We had a great start - Liam, with an early break, scored within the first minute of the match. Aggressive attacking led to the second goal at 6 minutes, scored by Sam, and then into half-time leading by 2 - 0. The second half saw our defence getting some of the play and the combination of Matthew and Jake, supported by Chris in goal, saw off some close attacks. However, within a couple of minutes into the second half, Liam, supported by Cam & Ben, scored a second goal and then, with 2 minutes to go, scored his third goal. A hat trick for Liam, a 4 - 0 win for us!

Our second match was against Binfield Moon. The Binfield teams had held the trophy for the past 6 years and we knew this would be a tough match. We started well, with Ben and Cam up front, Luke in goal, Liam and Jake in the midfield / defence. Ben scored a great goal early in the match and just before half time, Cam made it 2! The second half was exciting to watch as we had some great chances, which were foiled by the other team. The defence were solid and our forwards pushed as hard as they could. A scuffle in their area led to us being awarded a free kick just outside of the box. Liam lined this up - and scored a fantastic goal to bring the final score to 3-0 and his personal goal tally to 4.

We were feeling confident as we lined up to play the other Binfield team: the Binfield Stars (their "A" team). We started with Luke in goal, Jake and Liam supporting defence, Cam, Ben and Sam up front. Unfortunately, Binfield made an early break and scored within the first minute of the match. The first goal against us. We then battled on bravely, Liam covering a huge amount of ground as he supported defence, midfield and our forwards in a superb effort of skill and determination. Cam and Ben ran everywhere, Sam was solid in support - but we did not manage to score in the first half. In the second half, we had Chris in goal, Matthew in defence supported by Liam, Jake in mid-field and Cam and Luke up front. This worked well and we had a few chances but could not manage to convert these to a goal. In the 9th minute of the match, there was a hand ball offence in the box and we were awarded a penalty. The obvious choice was Liam - he placed the ball and coolly drove a killer shot in the back of the net! 2-1 to Binfield and, despite best efforts, this was the score at the end of the match.

Our final game was against Sunningdale and we needed to at least draw this to stand a chance of getting through to the semis. We started with Chris in goal, Matthew in defence, Cam in mid-field / defence, Liam in mid-field, Ben & Sam up front. This was a great combination of skills and strengths. Sam scored our first goal within the first 4 minutes of the half. This was followed one minute later by a goal from Liam. The next minute there followed a great bit of teamwork between Ben and Liam with Liam finally getting the ball in the net. 3 - 0 at half time. In the second half, we saw Liam setting up a fantastic opportunity, which Jake was able to convert, 4 -0. Some aggressive playing and our first goal immediately followed this via a header - …from Liam. 5 - 0. Liam was involved in the next goal - setting up Jake for a final conversion, 6 - 0 and in the last 2 minutes of the game, Liam scored again! 7 - 0. 4 goals by Liam.

We now did the maths: 3 wins and 1 loss. 9 points, and a combined goal score of 15 - 2. We were through to the semis! The way these fell meant that we had to play our other 2nd Bracknell team: the "Tigers" in the semi-final. It was tough - no one knew who to cheer for! We put out our strongest combination of players with Chris in goal, Matthew in defence, Cam in defence / mid-field, Liam in mid-field, Ben & Sam up front. At half time, despite some great playing from both teams, there was no score. As always we changed the team at half time and Luke played in goal and Jake took on the defence position. We were warmed up now and started to play strongly with Sam scoring at 8 and 10 minutes and Ben securing the win by a goal in the 12th minute.

We were in the final - against the Binfield Stars - who had been our only loss. Everyone gathered round to support the team. It was very tense. Condor was there gamely waving the 2nd Bracknell flag and just managed to miss causing injury to unsuspecting people standing too close to him! We fielded a strategic combination of positions: Chris in goal, Matthew and Sam in defence, Liam in mid-field, Ben & Jake up front. The play was hard and fast. Sam & Matthew were asked to cover defence and prevent Binfield having any clear shot on goal. Liam was covering the field and pushing the ball forward to Jake and Ben. This effort paid off and Liam scored after 5 minutes. We continued to battle hard and managed to come off at half-time just 1 - 0 up. Cam then came on and Luke took goal. There were some blistering attacks from Binfield and every player in the "Bears" was asked to make some fantastic saves / tackles or shots - which they did. Binfield had a couple of very close calls - narrowly missing our goal posts at least twice. The final whistle went and we had WON!!!!

The team were ecstatic - they had played some brilliant football. Liam was nominated the "Golden Boot" as he had scored 10 goals in the tournament. We raised the trophy - the first time that Binfield had not taken this home with them in the past 6 years! What a victory!

Lynne Hughes (Manager)

2nd Bracknell Tigers - match report by Mike Maughan

Once again the weather was fine for the annual Cubs football tournament at Binfield FC. 2nd Bracknell Tigers started with a disadvantage as the potential squad of 8 was an actual group of 6 meaning everyone got to play all the matches. To add to the pressure Baloo gave them red and white striped shirts to play in rather than the preferred black and white favoured by the manager!

First opposition was 4th Bracknell Lions who didn’t have time to catch breath before Lewis scored after 8 seconds! The Tigers dominated the game and ran out winners by 4 goals to 1, Lewis scored another 2 to complete a hat trick and James W scored the 4th. Callum in goal only touched the ball twice all game!

Next up was 6th Bracknell. A positional change put James M in goal with Callum getting the chance to get involved in midfield. The Tigers took an early lead with another goal from Lewis who was full of running and it looked like the Tigers were going to win again. A minor calamity struck midway through the second half when the Tigers defence forgot about the “back pass” rule giving 6th Bracknell a free kick from 5 yards from which they got the equaliser. Despite lots of running from Kieran and Daniel the second goal would not come so a draw it was at the final whistle.

Third opposition was South Ascot who started well and had the better of the early stages of the game. Daniel was spurred on by Mum offering £5 for a goal (in jest?) so he duly obliged and scored the opener. South Ascot then equalised and took the lead before Kieran scored with a fine shot after good team play all round. James W nearly scored the winner after a good run but a draw was a fair result in the end.

It all came down to the last game - Binfield Sun. Top of the group with 3 wins from 3 games, scoring goals for fun. The Tigers had to win to progress to the semi-finals. Time for a change of tactics, the boys were getting tired so it was 3 at the back, Kieran pushing on from midfield and Lewis hovering in the opposition half. Much reminding of tactics from the sidelines and even a call of “You’ve gone past the clip board” from an excited mother to Lewis! Tigers soaked up lots of pressure; Binfield even hit the post but with 5 minutes to go Kieran ran through the defence and scored with a blistering shot. James M defended in an unusual fashion, twice directing headers over the Tigers own crossbar but they held on for the win.

The semi-final pitted the 2 teams from 2nd Bracknell against each other, the Bears having the fresher legs as they had the luxury of 2 substitutes. End to end stuff and 0 - 0 at half time. The second half was a different story, endless pressure from the Bears led to 3 goals despite a quite spectacular save from Callum and a triple save from James M.

Six pairs of tired legs and restful nights sleep was had by all the Tigers including the manager! Callum D-J, James W, Kieran T, Lewis G, Daniel F and James M represented 2nd Bracknell Tigers.

Mike Maughan (Manager)