My team, “Castle Colts under 12 Girls”, went to Bournemouth for a tournament as we were the reigning champions from the previous year. On the first day of the event we won the first three games and drew on the last game 1-1. On the second day we won all three games and finished top of the leader board, 3 points ahead of the other team who were in second place.

We faced this team in the final and unfortunately they beat us 1-0. Everyone on the team was understandably disappointed. This disappointment was also felt by the parents and the members of the teams we had faced in the tournament earlier that day. The reason for this disappointment was the fact that a number of our players were injured in the final due to questionable football tactics in the final.  We put this disappointment aside and later that afternoon we went to the presentation for the awards – the celebrity presenter was Ledley King (a former Spurs defender), who we all privileged enough to have our photos taken with (last year it was Glen Hoddle). What made my day was the fact that when we stood up on stage to receive our ‘runners up medal’ and the audience erupted; everyone standing up applauding and cheering and when the winners arrived the place went silent and there was faint dissent from the other team’s parents. It was really touching and we felt as a team that is was almost better than winning as it showed that public opinion felt we’d won that tournament fair and square through sportsmanship and fair play, qualities that should be encouraged in the field of sport.

Alice Marshall Year 7