History of the Tournament 1980-2006

In 1980, Petersfield Town Juniors Under-11 - managed at the time by Ray Tarling (right) – were one of just 12 teams playing in the Chichester League.

Petersfield had been formed from local Cubs’ team which played up to the under-10 age group and had competed for the Rodney Bishop Trophy at the end of each season – for which they still compete to this day. The twelve clubs in the Chichester League thought that it would be a good idea to get together at the end of the season to play each other in a six-a-side tournament.

Petersfield Town Juniors hosted it at Penn’s Place and under-11 and under-12 teams gathered together one Sunday, to play on two pitches, for the Wisdom & Leece Challenge Trophy and the Dave Cameron Trophy.

The next year saw the tournament grow to four age groups on two pitches played over Saturday and Sunday.  Now the tournament has grown and grown to 10 age groups, 15 pitches and 295 teams. In those days there were a few helpers including Brian Yates, John Wood, John Kinally, Ray Coombes and Ken Wisdom and much support from all their wives.

Now many more helpers are needed to keep this enjoyable tournament at the same standard set all those years ago.

Dave Coombes does a wonderful job co-ordinating the tournament on the day with his wife, Sue. Dave has been involved with the tournament since it began in 1980, first as a player, then as a helper and for the past 18 years, he has been on ‘control’.

This year his own children are playing in the tournament and he is also managing one of the girls’ teams.