FOOTE’S LANE has experienced a celebration of football. The Centenary Muratti setting was the venue for the annual VisitGuernsey/Rothschild Mini Soccer Festival at the weekend.

More than 250 boys took part.

‘It was a huge success,’ said Steve Dewsnip, the chairman of the organising committee.

‘We were delighted with the success of the festival which is now firmly established as a highlight of the junior footballing calendar. We received great feedback from the competing teams, spectators and sponsors.

‘We’re now looking forward to next year and with the help of our sponsors, we would love this to grow.’

The weekend of 22 and 23 July has been pencilled for the 2006 festival.

Dewsnip hopes to increase the number of teams next year by attracting some from the Continent.

The outstanding player over the weekend was St Paul’s Jack Hinton. The Jersey lad took home the Collins Stewart player of the tournament award.

The coaches from two Premiership sides, Arsenal and Everton, were impressed by the skills on display at the event and they were no doubt sniffing around for the next Rooney or Beckham.

‘They were having a good look,’ said Dewsnip.

‘Tosh Farrell, from Everton, has being coming to the festival for the last four years and he felt that this year the Channel Island football was the best it ever has been in this age group.’

The standard of football in the islands was illustrated by an all Channel Island final as St Paul’s faced North. The Jersey team came away champions with a 1-0 win over the chocolate- and-blues.

The shock of the tournament was the exit of Arsenal and Everton in the quarter-finals.

‘Even though it was won by a Jersey team, it was nice from a Guernsey point of view to have North in the final,’ said Dewsnip.

‘The defeat of both Arsenal and Everton on penalties in the quarters of the Rothschild Shield added to the romance of the tournament.’