AFC Bournemouth’s Community Sports Trust visited Canford Cliffs for a weekend of beach football activities.
Kicking off the weekend, five local primary schools from Bournemouth and Poole took part in half-day activities as part of the Premier League Primary Stars programme on the Friday.
The schools visited the beach for a carousel of football coaching activities, before taking part in some small-sided games against each other.
Children from Bethany Junior School, St. James Academy, Corpus Christi School, Bearwood Primary and St. Marks School all enjoyed their coaching sessions on the sand and were rewarded for their efforts with a Primary Stars certificate and medal.
Following on from that, the AFC Bournemouth Girls and Women’s teams were invited to continue their pre-season preparations with their own beach training exercises.
The players took part in fitness exercises, team-building challenges and finally lots of small-sided matches as they look to prepare themselves for the 2018/19 season.
The Saturday time-slots were opened up to players from the AFC Bournemouth Premier League girls’ programme, who visited the beach to take part in some footballing activities, which included a World Cup Themed small-sided tournament.
To finish off a brilliant day, the BT Disability and Premier League Kicks programmes welcomed their counterparts from Watford and Chelsea to the beach for a tournament.
Players from the Premier League Kicks programme enjoyed a competitive tournament on the sand, with some outstanding goals being scored as the players adjusted to the surface.
The disability programme players, which included those with hearing and visual impairments as well as cerebral palsy, were also competitive as they enjoyed their tournament.
Afterwards, everyone made their way to Vitality Stadium to support England, as they played Sweden in the World Cup quarter-final.
Summarising another excellent weekend for the Community Sports Trust, Head of Community Steve Cuss shared his thoughts.
“The whole beach weekend was a huge success, we had glorious weather to support many of our projects who were able to showcase the work of the season in a very special way on the beach at the beautiful surroundings of Canford Cliffs beach,” he concluded.
