Girls’ Football County Cup – 2007/2008
The 2007/08 County Cup Final Day was for the third year hosted by the outstanding venue of Feniton FC. Thanks go to the committee of Feniton FC for being a great host and for providing some excellent pitches for the Finals to take place on.
This was the 6th year of the competition and saw 91 teams from 36 schools enter across the 3 age groups, meaning over 700 girls competed, this is estimating each squad to be made up of 8 players. I am sure that more players than this took part over the duration of the competition and goes some way to show how popular the girls game is in Devon. A lot of the credit for this number of players competing must go to the teachers who offer their girls this extra curricular opportunity. A number of Charter Standard clubs have linked with the school teams and have seen a number of the players make the transition from the school environment to the club setting. This is great to see and will help to make clubs sustainable through these School Club Links.
This year saw the North of the County try a new format with 3 Central Venue leagues running. Each of the 3 venues, all Football Foundation funded facilities, South Molton, Gt Torrington and Braunton, hosted 3 schools each; once a month for 6 months, meaning each age group had 2 fixture dates. After each age group had played their 2 fixtures, the 3 age group winners from each CVL competed to see who would compete at the County Finals day. This format worked extremely well with all schools having a set fixture structure to work to and will be used for the 08/09 competition.
The football on display at the finals day was of a high standard with the referees commenting on this fact. All teams competed well in a competitive afternoon of football. All teams must be commended for the way they handled themselves both on and off the pitch. There were some high scoring games during the day with the East, South and West areas providing the County Champions for this season. Stoke Dameral took the honours for the West in the U16s, Exmouth for the East in the U14s and Teignmouth for the South in the U12s.
COMPETITION WINNERS RUNNERS-UP
U12 CUP Teignmouth Exmouth
U14 CUP Exmouth Ridgeway
U16 CUP Stoke Damarel Exmouth