Dorchester Town 'very happy' with Magpies Football Festival

The Magpies held their popular youth tournament at the Avenue Stadium this weekend gone, attracting almost 100 teams from Dorset and Somerset.

Up to 30 volunteers also helped deliver the tournament without a hitch.

Boys and girls from every age between seven and 16 competed in a round robin format, with quick-fire six-a-side games laid out on each quarter of the Avenue Stadium pitch.

Dorchester Town Youth FC Magpies J tasted victory in the under-12 boys event.

In the under-13 boys competition, there was also success for Dorchester Town Youth FC Raiders and their coach Tom Berry, who also helps run the Magpies’ digital media team.

Pen Mill Lionesses also achieved two trophies in the under-14 and under-16 girls’ event.

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Wimborne Town were the other team to complete a double over the weekend, scooping the boys’ under-seven and under-eight classes.

Redlands Rebels and West Moors were respective under-nine and under-10 boys’ winners, with Greenfield Pumas taking the under-11 boys’ crown.

Dorchester Town held a hugely successful Magpies Football Festival Picture: NEIL WALTON

Lytchett Matravers Spitfires were under-14 boys’ champions and Boscombe Albion took under-15 boys’ victory.

Merley Cobham Sports rounded off the silverware winners with success in the under-12 girls’ competition.

Speaking to Echosport, tournament organiser and club director Cameron Dabbs was delighted to deliver a packed schedule without major hiccups.

He said: “Myself and Tom, who were running the show along with the referees, were very happy with the day.

“We stayed on schedule the whole weekend and worked really hard.”

And feedback has been positive. Dabbs said: “I’ve sent out surveys to the teams and we’ve had some quite positive feedback to work on and build on for next year.

“It’s all been fairly positive, they said it was well run.

“The biggest comments I had prior to running the event was that teams didn’t want to be waiting around for long periods of time in between games.

“So we worked the fixtures out where they’d get a small break in between games but the fixtures would come thick and fast and they didn’t have to spend the whole day down there.”

Dabbs added: “Scott (Symes, chairman) was very happy with it and we all worked hard.

“There were loads of situations with Covid and how we were going to run it. We put three or four different plans in place.”