After Euro ’96, Football came home to Wembley (Vale Farm) where players flocked from all parts of England to participate in the SKLP 5-a-side Tournament. The matches for the juniors and seniors was played on 7th and 14th July respectively.

In group1 the support for Kera Kundalpur, Bharasar, Dahisara, Vekra and Baladia could be heard all the way back home. Kera Kundalpur kicked off with a 5-0 victory against Bharasar Devilis, but couldn’t repeat the same with other teams in the group. Bharasar Devilis, in their next game put on a great act by beating The Bollywood Junglists 6-0. Eventually, Bendev ‘A’ and Baladia Youth qualified to the next round.

In group2, SKLP Bolton with a professional coach tried very hard to qualify but to no avail along with Bendev ‘B’ and Shree Stars who all played sportingly. Neasden boys who came back to gain some respect for the humiliating defeat of last year, qualified to the next round along with Woolwich Devil’s.

In group3, ‘No Fear’ fearlessly lost all their qualifying games. “Ultimate Desire”, desired mission was to qualify to the next round, which was made impossible by “Mission Impossible” due to the goal difference. The other three gam teams in this group; Vekara, Bharasar and Finchley Boyz (Kodki) all played with desire to win, and ultimately Kodki Boyz mission with out fear won all their games.

Phase 2 consisted of two groups of three teams in which Woolwich Devil’s and Mission Impossible were knocked out.

During the semi-finals Neasden Boys and Kodki Boyz were also knocked out as shown below:

In the road to the final Bendev and Baladia only conceded 2 and 1 goals respectively due to brilliant goal keeping from both 11 year old goalies, in particular Amar Varsani (height 58”) of Bendev who made countless spectacular saves.

The final was played with many chances from both sided but none could find the back of the net and after extra time the match went into a penalty shoot out. During this stage all the 4 players in both teams scored and everything rested on the goalies. First to go was Amar from Bendev who placed the ball on the spot and comfortably saw it to the back of the net. Now Jiten Jesani of Baladia had to score to make it even, he aimed for the right-hand corner; Amar dived to the right and made a spectacular save to register Bendev for the very first time as the winners of the juniors’ 5-a-side football.

The Euro ’96 fever continued onto the following week with a record breaking 32 senior entries. The organisers decided to allow 30 teams of 6 groups as shown below:

All teams played aggressively and sportingly to qualify. The best 12 teams who qualified to the next stage were:

In the semi-finals a clinical chip over the goalie by Jiten Vekaria secured Bendev “A” to the finals and earned him the treasured Top Goal Soccer Trophy. This was also a great achievement for Bendev to have won all the three prestigious SKLP 5-a-side football trophies, well done.

“Ask not what SKLP can do for me, what can I do for my community”. Myself, Manesh Patel and few dedicated players have been doing just that, organising the 5-a-side-football tournament for the past 12 years. A list of all the previous seniors’ winners is shown below:

This years tournaments had many dramatic events, none more so than the elimination of veterans Kingsbury Builders Merchant; last years winners. To make it even more popular within our community I request to every Gam to assist themselves a mission until the next competition to recruit budding players and provide them with facilities for training. This will give the youth of today an identity and to be proud of their Gams.

“Accept the challenge so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory”.

As usual great appreciation is deserved for the organisers who helped out especially Manesh Patel and Shamji Vishram for meticulously planning and scheduling the games on the day and to all the boys who turned up at 7:30am to set-up the goals and the pitches. Special thanks must also go to Baladia Youth for providing the first aid, Bendev Construction Ltd and Beetacom Ltd, for sponsoring the pitches. Thank you on behalf of SKLPC.

Samji D Harsiani (Kera)

For more information you can email us to info@sklpcfootball.com.