THE first Wharfedale Junior Football League Six-a- Side Tournament was held at The Old Show Ground, Pool Road, Otley.

The hosts Otley Town AFC made all their facilities available for the day to some 40 teams belonging to the newly-formed league. In all, over 300 children aged 7 to 11 years along with friends and families were a credit to their respective clubs.

The brilliant weather matched some equally brilliant football.

All nine pitches were in constant use throughout the day and even the first round games seemed to be played with a cup final spirit.

The Under-11s had three finals to play, the previous rounds being played in the latter stage of the season. Menston Hotshots 'A' played Sandy Lane in the Main cup final with Sandy Lane taking the honours.

Cookridge kept Menston Hostshots 'B' on their toes well into extra-time until the Hotshots finally scored the "Golden Goal" for the supplementary shield.

Weston Lane invited Otley Town to play in the Eric Shaw Invitation Cup, a game in which all boys were from Otley or Pool.

Former Weston Lane junior Keith Urquhart later presented the trophy to Otley Town and said he felt honoured to make the presentations to both teams, especially when Eric would have been involved with most of the boys' families at some stage of his life-time at Weston Lane.

The Under-10 winning finalists were Burley Juniors who edged out Otley Town in a penalty shoot out after neither team could be set apart in normal or extra-time.

The Under-9 semi-finals saw Menston Hotshots and Weston Lane 'B' go through to the final by the odd goal against Sandy Lane and Guiseley Dynamo respectively. Weston Lane ran out the winners after a superb save from the Menston keeper was parried into the timely run of Lorna Stringwell which gave Lane the narrowest margin.

At Under-8 level Ilkley 'A' and Sandy Lane, who had matched each other in first round, played a further qualifying game.

This game went into extra-time with Ilkley finally reaching the semi-finals. Both teams were noted to have used very high standard of passing skills for this age group.

The semi-finals saw a spirited Burley 'A' go out to the in-form Guiseley 'A', the eventual final winners.

Ilkley's run was finally ended by Weston Lane who had not conceded a goal all tournament until the final.

At Under-7 level Guiseley Dynamo'A' and Guiseley Dynamo 'B' along with Weston Lane all played each other twice with the top two going into the final. Dynamo 'A' were the final winners.

Special guest for the day was Wharfedale FA President Peter Wigglesworth who presented the finalists with trophies.

Mr Wigglesworth, who has been involved with local football for some 33 years, negotiated with the Wharfedale FA for the use of some of the trophies and also with an anonymous sponsor for a shield.

Whilst taking in some of the games earlier Peter found himself lining up to referee one of the semi-finals and just found enough breath to blow the final whistle.

With this in mind he thanked all the referees for the task of what seemed to be non-stop end-to-end enjoyment.

Finally Chris Lawson and David Duffield along with all clubs involved on the day would like to thank everyone at Otley Town, especially "Chip", for giving up the best part of the weekend to make this tournament a very enjoyable event.

The day would not have run so smoothly without the girls on the results table and thanks go to Karen, Wendy, Linda, Yvonne, Julia and Kate.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.