Wycombe Wanderers Sports & Education Trust were thrilled to host the annual Adams Park Cup on the weekend of the 15th and 16th May 2021. 64 teams from the local area competed for the silverware in four age groups: under-8’s, under-9’s, under-10’s and under-11’s.
It was great to see smiling faces back in the stands and on the pitch, after last years event was called off amid the covid lockdown, and fans only being able to attend two Wycombe Wanderers home fixtures in the 2020-21 season for the same reason. Social distancing was something that was in the minds of our teams and everyone observed the rules to the letter.
The event kicked off early, at 7:30 am on Saturday morning as team members from WWSET split the Adams Park playing surface into four smaller pitches with cones (Red Pitch, Yellow Pitch, Orange Pitch and White Pitch), erected the new samba goals, and started the playlist over the tannoy ready for action. An hour later at 08:30 am, the teams started to filter in for warm-ups and a 09:00 am kick-off.
The first day of action saw WWSET team members Paul, Mark, Andy and Billy on refereeing duty, and saw some very competitive football. The sun was shining and everyone was on great form. The Europath Allstars won the Under-8’s tournament after a battling performance in the final, and Ickenham Youth took the medals in the Under-9’s division.
- Under-8’s Champions: Europath Allstars
- Under-9’s Champions: Ickenham Youth
Sunday saw Brian, Charlie, Ashley and Jason as the men in the middle. The Under-10’s tournament would see great skills on show, with Ruislip Rangers coming out on top. The football was hard-fought, and as the afternoon went on, the weather closed in, making for some slippery surfaces and spicy challenges. The Europath Allstars White would come out as eventual winners of the tournament.
- Under-10’s Champions: Ruislip Rangers
- Under 11’s Champions: Europath Allstars White
The event also saw the introduction of ‘POWER PLAY’! At a pre-selected, but random, point in the play, a track would start around the stadium, indicating the start of power play – where goals count double! Every goal scored is worth two goals. Power play changed the narrative of many games, with some thrilled with the outcome, and with some disappointed by the results. One particular conversation was interesting in which Ashton from Marlow asked whether his goal in normal time and one goal in powerplay constituted a hattrick! The jury is out, let us know your thoughts in the comments!
James Richings from the Bucks Free Press was in attendance and covered the event for us and, despite some technical issues with the wifi (as the club are currently in the middle of making some massive infrastructure improvements around the ground in preparation for next season), the event was also able to be live-streamed on the WWSET YouTube channel to an audience of over 5,00o viewers over the weekend, and an ever-increasing number since. The planned four-camera setup became a two-camera setup, but there was still plenty of action streamed to family far and wide across the country and world. We have viewers from the next street, as well as from Tampa, Florida, USA, and from Wellington, NZ! It was also lovely to see the Adams Park kiosks back in action, ably manned by Will Shaw, who will be providing the food at the club for the upcoming season.
WWSET would like to extend a massive thank you to everyone who helped put on the Adams Park Cup 2021, including the staff who refereed the action, DJ’d from the booth, photographed in the sun and rain and the people who organised the event, especially Kirk and Lewis from WWSET. We would also like to thank Wycombe Wanderers Football Club for their support both with the organisation of the event and for the social media support over the weekend. But the biggest thank you of all must go to all of the players, coaches, parents and viewers. The event would not have been the same without you and we’ll see you again in 2022!
Click to see the full gallery of pictures here:
