The Kings Field and St Peter’s C of E School sports field saw lots of shooting, scoring, goal saving, passing, penalties, passion, pride and lots of fun and sun during Henfield Football Club’s biggest and best youth tournament to date.
The HFC tournament, which was sponsored by Pagoda Security, saw 176 teams from across Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire, competing in age groups from U6s to U15s, during our brilliant tournament weekend in May. The event saw around 3,500 people visiting our wonderful village to attend.
The tournament saw plenty of HFC black and white stripy shirts showing great team work, skills and determination on the pitches over the weekend, with 18 home teams taking part, including our brilliant U6s and U7s making their tournament debuts.
Among teams lifting tournament trophies was our Henfield U15 Girls team, managed by Gavin Williams, who became the first Henfield team to win a final at our home tournament.
As well as the often nail-biting football action, visitors also enjoyed huge inflatables, being photographed with HFC’s fantastic new mascot Marley the Magpie, mini golf, table tennis, skate boarding sessions, Goodness smoothies, candy floss, sweets, crepes, ice cream, The Barista Project coffee and free fresh fruit courtesy of Jeremy’s Two of Cowfold.
Hungry players and supporters also loved the range of delicious cakes baked by lots of wonderful HFC parents and players, local businesses including Planet Sprinkles, Truffles and Mayblossom Café and the fantastic chefs at local care homes Upper Mead, Red Oaks and Terry’s Cross.
The tournament’s amazing raffle saw two lucky winners presented with signed Harry Kane and Mbappé prints, which were kindly donated by Mounted Memories.
Also new for this year was a design our tournament programme front cover competition. This was won by HFC U11s player Ted Emery, who won himself a range of great prizes, including a signed Lewis Dunk Football, with his impressive Pelé inspired front cover.
This year’s tournament again saw amazing support from Henfield Parish Council and St Peter’s School and PTA, with many of our younger age group matches taking place on the school’s field. The school and St Peter’s PTA also kindly loaned lots of equipment to help the event run smoothly.
Tournament director Joe Warner said: “We would like to thank all the brilliant volunteers, local businesses and people in our community for their support in making this tournament our best ever. An incredible weekend of football was enjoyed by the hundreds of children taking part.”
He added: “It was amazing to see so many players, their supporters and people from our local community having fun in the sun, whilst also helping to raise essential funds for our club.
“We have had amazing feedback from teams on what a superb tournament this is, as well as from many local businesses who commented on the big boost to trade they saw over the weekend. We can’t wait for next year already!”
Joe Penfold, HFC’s co-chair said: ““A huge thanks goes to our wonderful tournament committee, led by Joe Warner, for the endless time and energy they put into making this year’s tournament so successful and memorable for all. The funds raised are vital in enabling the club to continue supporting hundreds of local children to enjoy playing football.”
Sam Witherden and Joe Penfold HFC co-chairs
