Castle Combe Colts’ annual Festival of Football demonstrated that the beautiful game is alive and kicking as 200 teams showed off their skills in the sunshine.
A wonderful weekend of action featured the full range of age groups, with Reception and Year 1 children from the Colts’ own MiniKickers section having their chance to shine on the same pitches that saw under-16s boys and girls teams battle it out for the silverware.

Teams and their armies of supporters came from across Wiltshire, Bath, Bristol and Gloucestershire and were able to savour an event that ran like clockwork across three days thanks to the tireless efforts of the Colts’ committee, parent volunteers who parked cars, flipped burgers and served tea and coffee, as well as a mightily impressive team of referees assembled by Julian Sattin.
In all, 522 matches took place on immaculately prepared pitches and the increasingly-popular showpiece served up the usual mixture of cheers and tears from the participating teams. Respect – a word at the very heart of the Colts’ ethos – fantastic sportsmanship and fun were the real winners, however, and ensured all who visited the club’s picturesque headquarters enjoyed a day to remember.

The hosts came so close to grabbing the honours in two age groups, with the under-11 Whites and under-14 Whites edged out in close finals by Bishops Cannings and Bath City Blacks respectively. Trophies were largely shared across the board, with Bath Arsenal under-7s and FC Chippenham Jaguars under-8s collecting the two Fair Play Awards.

Proud Colts chairman David Lewis paid tribute to all who made the footballing feast possible, saying: “It was great to see so many different grassroots clubs represented across the weekend and we hope their experience was such that they will consider visiting us for many years to come.

“It takes a fantastic effort by many volunteers to ensure our tournament goes ahead, is run smoothly and this experience is an enjoyable one. I would like to personally thank every volunteer for their contribution to our tournament and extend and additional thank-you to our committee, who spend many hours in preparation and planning for the weekend.”
The club also extended its thanks to key tournament supporters the Lysley Family, Colin Ward, Chippenham Lions Club, Chippenham Pallet Company, MJ Church, Practical Van Hire and By Brook Valley School for in helping to make the event such an enormous success.

ROLL OF HONOUR 2017
U7 Fair Play: Bath Arsenal
U8 Fair Play: FC Chippenham Jaguars
U9: Swindon Supermarine Giants 0 FC Abbeymeads Tigers 1
U10: AFC Corsham Jaguars 0 AFC Corsham Panthers 1
U11 Sunday: Bishops Cannings Corinthians 1 CCCFC Whites 0
U11 Friday: Bradford Town Mustangs 1 Stratton B 2
U12: Bishops Cannings 3 Malmesbury Warriors 1
U13: FC Chippenham White (2) 1 FC Calne White 0
U14: CCCFC Whites 1 Bath City Blacks 2
U15: Lydiard Millicent A 4 AFC Corsham Jaguars 1
U16: FC Chippenham 0 Croft Junior Red (2) 1
U16 Girls: Melksham Town Yellow 0 Whitchurch Sports A 3