The Community Challenge Cup
Thursday 19 August is the date of the Community Challenge Cup a five a side football tournament for teams from the Elham Valley in Shepway and Capel in the Dover District. And the weather looks grim. It is raining when I arrive and the rain just gets worse. Fortunately there’s plenty to do at the village hall as the organisers have taken the opportunity to hold an exhibition of services available to the public including Age Concern, National Coastwatch and the NHS. Two nurses are on hand to do health checks and I’m given a run down on what to look out for to identify a stroke.
John and Gail Keeble on the Coastwatch stand
By the time I’ve toured the stands and chatted with Susan Lamb of the village hall committee members, the rain has stopped and I settle down to watch the mathces. As well as the youth teams, there’s a team from the Police and one of the Community wardens. You might think that the adults would have an advantage as they are larger and stronger but the finalists are Lympne and Capel. Capel have won for the last two years and this year look like making it a hat trick. The match is decided on a penalty shoot out and the home team, Lympne walks off with the trophy.
The winning team
There’s also an extra contest to win a set of signed photographs of Arsenal players. The player who keeps the ball off the ground for the longest is the winner and the winner of this game of ‘keepie uppy’ manages 65 kicks. (I subsequently read that the world record is held by someone who in January 2010 managed a 30 mile journey without once letting the ball touch the ground.)
The Shepway Community Safety Unit is on hand to provide music and, when the Police win a match, they play ‘I fought the law and the law won.’ Most apt.
Shepway Community Safety Unit
The youngsters show a good team spirit and, whilst everyone wants to win, the games are free from fouls and injuries.
Lympne is a lovely spot to spend the day and, apart from the early rain, the only drawback is that when the ball is hit over the fence it’s sometimes picked up by a horse and comes back wet. Somehow the community wardens always seem to end up with the job of retrieving the ball.
Penalty play off
It is of course the Community Wardens’ event and they have put the teams together and helped them train. Gary Harrison covers Elham, Lyminge and Etchinghill, Sue Covus Lympne, Tanya Clarke, Hawkinge and Paul James Capel. PC Trevor Moody is also a leading light in the running of this event and many others have helped make it a success. This is the fifth year the Community Challenge Cup has been held and it deserves to be a permanent fixture every summer.
