Last weekend was a big one in the cultural calendar as we celebrated International Women’s Day. A whole day just for women! Fashion gets a week; the Snake gets a year… but we’ll take our day. 

And that we did! Entering into the spirit of the weekend, Clapton CFC registered two teams into Girls United’s International Women’s Day Tournament at Powerleague Shoreditch, an annual five-a-side fundraiser to support their mission of creating safe spaces for girls to play football.

Representing CCFC in the Advanced group was Aga Besz, Ching Hang Chun, Tammy Hymas, Annie McGrath, Zoe McNiece, Noora Oikarainen, Brigitte Santana and CCFC Reserves’ Head Coach Amii Griffith. Amii took the day off coaching to play in goal, ironically the position which requires the most on-pitch coaching. Sidenote: she absolutely smashed it and was undoubtedly our Player of the Tournament.

It was grassroots football at its most grassroots, as we started the day a player down; on arrival Ching realised she was without her contact lenses and had to take an emergency journey home to retrieve them.

The first fixture was a real lesson in adapting to the whims of the cage (netted roof, low goals, side walls etc etc) as well as the fierce pace of the game. We lost 2-0. For our second match we were more prepared. Now with a full squad (and 20/20 vision all round), we secured a one nil win. 

After a close draw (also known as a draw), CCFC finished third in the advanced group, and went through to the knockout stages where we lost to the eventual tournament winners, Keen FC, who were presumably just more eager to win…

Meanwhile, Clapton Cageys – far more experienced in the cage department, obvs – tore their way through the Beginners’ group, making it all the way to the final where they were unlucky in defeat to the confident Royal Regents Blue.

Shout out to the morale-boosting fans who came down to support the teams, especially CCFC Reserves’ Assistant Coach Johanna Kuosa, and player Lisa Henderson, who brought the vibes (and the tinnies).

All in all, a fantastic day in the sun supporting Girls United and their brilliant work globally.

Thankfully it was also an injury-free day for Clapton, aside from some massage-gun related antics off the pitch, but let’s not get into that now.

To end on a cliché: at the end of the day, football was the real winner. The only loser was poor Cageys’ Goalkeeper Jenn who reluctantly took home a signed Chelsea shirt in the raffle. Luckily there are plenty of charity shops in Shoreditch.

Annie McGrath