Hundreds of East Anglia’s children have booted up and headed to Norfolk for one of the county’s largest youth football tournaments.
The Fakenham Town Football Club have welcomed 134 teams from under six to under 15s, coming from all over the eastern counties for the five a side tournament.
James Page is the organiser of the tournament, as well as being the under 13 manager. Mr Page, who has played for the club himself since he was a teenager, said: “It’s been fantastic. Everyone is really enjoying themselves and we’ve got good weather, which is the only thing we couldn’t control.
“It’s an event the whole club gets involved with. We have first team and older team players refereeing matches, we have dads refereeing and the mums are in the score tents, everyone comes together for it.”
He said: “I think it’s so popular because it’s so well organised, and it’s all volunteer run.
Mr Page continued: “We’re sponsored by the Fakenham business the Vanshop.com, and this is in our third year. The tournament just keeps getting bigger every year, but we’re pretty much at capacity now.”
The matches took place across June 23 and 24, with various age groups playing at the Clipbush Park grounds across the days.
Dougie Colman is the chief executive of the club, and added: “We really have a focus on youth at the club, and James and a team of seven or eight make up the youth committee.
“It’s really their baby and they do a fabulous job with it.”
Mr Colman continued: “First team players go down to help out, all of the committee members go down. The whole club really gets involved.”
Winners of each age group will be announced on Monday, June 25.
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