Last weekend we had a different start to the season. The girls took part in the first Cornwall Girls Beach Football cup as part of The FA Girls Festival on Perranporth beach.
The tournament was an all day tournament and we were represented at every age group (U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18), the only club to be so.
Due to changes in other organisations that offer girls football in the county over the summer, we at Liskeard Girls FC have gone from being the biggest girls only club in the county to the club with the most girls playing and most girls teams in the county. The only club to have a team in every league this season.
Getting back to the beach football event, all of our girls thoroughly enjoyed it. Beach football is something we have been keen to do and organise in the club in the future, so when we heard about this, we jumped at the opportunity. The event was a real eye-opener and is a very difficult game to master. If you watch the top level beach football events on youtube, it seems to be a game of chips and volleys with the ball rarely hitting the ground but trying to do this with a youth team which has a range of abilities within the team, is near impossible. However, we adapted and played some great football with our U-12s finishing runners-up and our U-18s winning their age group over Penzance, so it was a very successful day for the club.
I think the concept of the beach festival was a great idea for girls football development. To get the attention of girls and of the press we need to do different things and make the sports as vibrant and lively as we possibly can, which I think is what this achieved. The beach football event is hopefully going to become an annual event in Cornwall, which will be great for the scene and will hopefully encourage more girls into the sport. It will also be good for our girls, as it is a great strength and fitness builder to spend a day running through sand.
She Kicks – the online community for women’s football
