A FATHER who strove to provide girls with an opportunity to play football managed to set up a tournament for those wanting to give the sport a go.

The idea came when Paul Lane’s daughter had expressed an interest in playing the game but there were no all-girls teams.

Paul set up training sessions in the field close to the swimming pool in Durrington and gradually, the number of participants increased.

Salisbury Journal: Playing footballPlaying football (Image: Paul Lane)

Paul said: "I wanted to give girls the chance to play football whatever their skillset. For the tournament, we had just over 50 girls and about 30 had never played football before.

"There were different ages attending from the very young to those aged about eight to 10 years.”

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Paul had support from friends and other parents and they even had referees and coaches. His friend Mark Ibbotson contacted lots of schools in the area to increase participation.

On the day of the tournament, Paul's wife ran the tombolo, and tuck shop.

The whole event took about four weeks to organise and set up but on the day, everything went smoothly.

Paul said: “It was a lot of fun. I think for many it was more about the fun of being together than for the football, but everyone enjoyed it.”

 

Companies sponsoring the event included RCH Builders, Salisbury Lettings, Easy Bathrooms, Read Trophies, Salisbury Orthodontics, WT Construction, Amesbury Printing, Disco Dion and Highland Plumbing and Heating.

Paul said: "I am very grateful for the sponsorship. It really helped."

He has already been asked whether he will run the event again.

He said: "I think it will be in the school term next time as we have discovered when it is warm and dry, sometimes, families will have made plans.

“But we had such great feedback afterwards so we will definitely do it all again.”