Cadets from Chipping Norton, based in North Oxfordshire, and cadets from Earley in Berkshire have proved themselves best of the bunch in a thrilling 5-a-side tournament held at RAF Benson.

28 teams from across the Thames Valley started the day with a series of league competitions for the male and female trophies before being narrowed down to the top 12 teams for the nail biting play off stage. In the male league teams from Windsor, Brize Norton and Wokingham headed the tables with Earley and Chipping Norton a few points behind whilst in the female competition Earley and, pre-competion favorites, Brize Norton looked strong contenders closely followed by Didcot and Wokingham. The Didcot girls reached the play off stages despite only having a 4 strong team.

Into the male quarter finals and a high scoring 4-1 win triumph over Britwell saw Wokingham move to the quarter finals together with Chipping Norton who won 4-1 on penalties over Earley, Woodley also won 5-4 on penalties against Didcot and Brize Norton against Windsor 4-5 on penalties again.. The semi’s saw Woodley triumph 4-0 over Wokingham and Chipping Norton narrowly beat Brize Norton 1-0. Into the nail biting final and Chipping Norton narrowly beat Woodley 1-0 in a close match.

With a smaller field the girls played straight from a quarter final with Earley’s pedigree shining through in a magnificent 5-0 beating of the depleted Didcot squad and Brize Norton coming to form again in a 2-0 trouncing of Wokingham. In the final the closeness of the team shone through with a narrow 1-0 win for Earley against Brize Norton.

The players of the tournament were 13 year old Cadet Josh Trayte from Maidenhead and Brize Cadet Orliath Kewley aged 15.

Presenting the silver wear and medals was Squadron Leader Stephen New, Deputy Wing Commander “I was impressed with the energy of the cadets and the excitement around all of the matches. In all we had almost 150 cadets playing quality, competitive sport today backed up by a 30 strong support team looking after everything from refereeing, scoring, first aid and the all important match statistics”.

Male League

Female League

Male Playoffs

Female Playoffs