Junior comp proves too popular

Douglas Villa have been forced to turn down upwards of 15 teams keen to play in their popular junior football tournament on September 15-16.

It's not that the Masterton-based club don't want to cater for all and sundry, rather that the available grounds and facilities are already stretched to breaking point by them already having accepted 138 teams, consisting in total of some 1600 individual players.

"We'd love to take more but it's just not on," organiser Dave Wright said yesterday. "It's never nice telling teams they are on a waiting list but we've really got no option, we simply can't fit everyone in."

As usual entries for the 2012 tourney have poured in from all over the lower North Island, including Hawke's Bay, Manawatu, Wanganui, Horowhenua-Kapiti, Hutt Valley and Wellington.

Park Sportsground will again be the headquarters with all matches involving the 7th grade through to 12th grade teams being played there while the 13th grade, which requires full-sized fields, will be staged at Hullena Park.

Meanwhile, the Douglas Villa 12th grade team coached by Dave Wright celebrated their debut season in the Capital Football junior promotional league series by winning the Super 6 bowl final played on the Nairnville turf in Khandallah last Saturday.

Their clash with Lower Hutt City was an enthralling affair with national development squad player Emily Morison scoring both of the goals in Douglas Villa's 2-1 victory.

Morison is one three girls in the Douglas Villa squad, and along with Stephanie Andrews-Paul and Megan Hayes, they have consistently acquitted themselves well against their male counterparts. Andrews-Paul, by the way, was named player of the day in the final.

"A number of the teams we play don't include any girls but we picked the best 12 players from trials and they deservedly got spots in our side," Wright said.

The success rate of the Douglas Villa 12th grade combination over their JPL season provides clear evidence of the huge impact they made against mainly Wellington-based clubs. They won 10 of their 12 matches and scored 36 goals while conceding just 14.