Lakenheath Youth Football Club celebrate biggest ever Challenge Cup weekend

The award-winning Lakenheath Youth Football Club have been celebrating yet another successful Challenge Cup.

In terms of numbers, this year’s event was the biggest yet with more than 500 children taking part in matches and an estimated 2,000 people attending to watch the action across the weekend.

And for chairman Richard Horrex, who has been in the position for seven years, to see the every-growing junior section come together was the source of great pride.

“It was a brilliant weekend and by far our biggest yet,” said Horrex. “There was over 500 players and there must have been about 2,000 people watching.

“And it wasn’t just mums and dads either. There was lots of family members and people from the village there watching so there was a real community feeling to it.

“To have everyone together down The Pit, it was a great sight. We’re a village so there’s always going to be a limit to what we can do, but we’re always looking to offer as much football for kids as possible.

“I must thank all of the sponsors and volunteers – it wouldn’t have happened without them.”

One new addition to this year’s event was the Wildcats – a non-competitive training programme for girls that the club has been running in recent weeks.

And Horrex is hopeful that two all-girl teams will be launched for next season on the back of those sessions.

“I’ve wanted to increase the number of girls we’ve had playing football for quite a while,” added Horrex.

“We did some training in schools where there must have been 100 girls and that was brilliant, but then when we put on a session outside of that only three or four girls turned up.

“We needed to understand the reasons for that and breakdown the barriers. The Wildcats was a great route to go down and we’ve been able to provide an environment where the girls feel comfortable.

“It’s great to see so many of them playing football, but also making friends and enjoying themselves.”