GAFFER’s first tournament for the Under 13 boys came to an exhilarating climax this weekend! The underdogs from Mkamenyi Village continued to impress with yet another solid performance!

Kale Village were hot favourites to take the U13 trophy but the incredible amount of hours put in on the training field paid off for Mr Frank and his boys! While Kale will be disappointed with the 5 – 0 defeat, all the spectators sang the praises of Mkamenyi’s young stars. However Kale cruised right up to the final and have promised to train hard and be back for the next U13 Cup!

A key part of GAFFER’s work in Kenya is to develop the youth. The first Under 13 league GAFFER has run is about to kick off. Titus Eluid reports after his first coaching session in Buguta village.

This year we are happy to let you know that we do have another kids league for those of 13years and below. We first thought of starting it in 8 villages which are really close to others divided into two groups A & B playing in a round robin format. The team which tops in each group play in a final in Maungu with runners playing third place play off. We have set everything ready to kick off the league and in the mean time we have been doing training sessions with these selected teams.

We hope that everything is going to run as expected as we look forward to it and in the end extend it to all the other villages within Kasigau region.

Kind regards,
GAFFER regional coordinator

A tournament organised by Kenya’s largest mobile phone operator featured teams from all of Kenya. Including the finest of GAFFER’s young stars! Titus Eluid – our main man in Kenya provides the story.

GAFFER ran several selection sessions involving with players from both the Men and Under 16 teams. The best players between the age of 16 and 23 year old were assembled for an intensive week long training camp.

The kids were well prepared for the tournament in several areas, spending full days training on the playing grounds practicing a lot of different drills. It was nice to have professional coach Mr Mohammed around in the sessions, as he shared a lot of knowledge with the players including tactical training in the evenings of each training day to test our progress.

The 15th April was the day of the event and we set off to Voi, where the event was taking place. In the event, there were 16 teams divided in 2 groups A & B playing in a knockout format. We were in group B playing against a good team from Voi in the third knockout of the day. In the first half the boys played an excellent match; at half time we were leading by 2 goals to nil! In the second half things changed when the referee from Voi awarded a free kick to the opponents, which lead to a goal. Two minutes later they were given a penalty and they made it 2-2 at full time. As it is in all competitions, there must be a winner and a loser. Sadly, we lost in a very confusing way, being disqualified because of a technicality. However, in the end we received certificates of participation for each player and a ball for the team. It was a really good experience for the players and we are now preparing hard for the coming events.

The recent tour match to Mombasa has made the papers! Coastweek, the paper of choice in Mombasa, provided a full run down of all the action.

The incredible improvement in football displayed by GAFFER's youth over the last 12 months deserved showcasing in the big city! The most talented players were kitted out like Real Madrid and played at the historic Mombasa Sports Club on a sunny Sunday in Kenya's coastal metropolis...

Their opponents were one of the best performing teams around and everyone knew this would be one epic game of football. Real Madrid had kindly donated youth team strips through Javier Gonzalez who came to watch the game with a bunch of football loving Spaniards. After a morning warm up at the sea side, which most of GAFFER's team had never even seen, the game kicked off! GAFFER's lads were playing on grass and in boots for the first time and fielded players as young as 10 years old!

The game was epic. Although GAFFER were beaten, the importance of such exposure was not lost on GAFFER's top men on the ground; Mr Mo and Titus. It was also a great experience for the Mombasa players to play their comrades from the rural side of Kenya.

After six months of great football, the best of GAFFER's youth did battle to lift the Andrew Murch Memorial Shield! In a hard fought game, Makina Village reigned supreme!

This competition has been brilliantly contested by every village and has seen the standard of youth football improve exponentially. Coaches have been assigned by GAFFER to coach the young players and the enthusiasm of the guys has been commendable.

The Andrew Murch Memorial Trophy is played in remembrance of a young Brit who tragically passed away in 2007. His family have kindly supported GAFFER with footballs that will allow young men in Kenya to enjoy the sport that Andrew lived for.

After the success of the Mens League, the second Youth Tournament kicked off in rural Kenya! The action began in Rukanga village and all 16 villages have fielded a team aiming to lift the Andrew Murch Memorial Shield in six months time! Coaches are trained and supported by GAFFER to push the young players to their limits. Players as young as ten battle it out with older boys and the quality of football is improving fast!

Eventually, after much anticipation, the GAFFER final for both the Andrew Murch Memorial Tournament and KCL4 have been played.

With Mr Benny’s arrival in Kenya a week before the event, it was always bound to be a Final to be remembered and there were certainly no disappointments.

In the week leading up to the big day there was much to do but also many people to lend a hand. James Ruwa, one of our previous employees who has been studying for the last year, made a trip home especially and he had barely stepped off the bus when he was sent off to engage in some goat bartering, which is no light hearted matter in Kenya. Luckily he had Inaki, a work college of Ben’s who was also available to lend a hand and generally provide lots of Spanish enthusiasm. Mr Mo was in charge of making sure we would be able to feed around 200 hungry fans and players on the day, calling for the buying of mountains of onions, potato and so forth. That just leaves myself, Titus, who has recently taken up the role of GAFFER’s man on the ground. I won’t bore you with a list of all the things I did, save to say running around like a crazy person was the order of the day.

During the day itself everything ran really well - tents were pitched by 7am, the football pitch was cleared, and by 8am the entertainer of the day - Kasuku bin kicheko , a brilliant musician come comedian, had arrived. The commentator of the day was our own, Mr Mo, and filming was done by Inaki.

The first match of the day was between the two men’s teams who had lost at Semi Final stage. This match would decide who would take third place in the league. Kiteghe and Jora both played brilliantly, resulting in a penalty shoot out being needed. It was during this shoot out that Kiteghe eventually achieved the victory they had been looking for, and it was their goalkeeper who truly took the role of man of the match as he dug deep and managed to save two out of the five penalties taken.

Following on from this dramatic match was the Kids final between Rukanga and Makina. It was amazing to see such young players from both teams showing us all what fantastic kids football really looks like. Rukanga scored a great goal, with one of their youngest players dribbling past two defenders near the eighteen yard box and unleashing a strong shot which left Makina goalkeeper on one side as the ball went through on the other side. The Makina team tried to change the situation, but their opponents fought to the end, and at full time it was joy for Rukanga as the results was 1 – 0.

After two matches and a considerable amount of eating and dancing, it was time for the last match of the day – the Men’s Final between Black lions and Sorbibor. Black Lions had the advantage of being the local team and hence having the upper hand when it came to supporter enthusiasm. However Sorbibor is not a team to be underestimated, with a high percentage of young Somali talents, they are feared for their high skilled football and accurate passing After half time the teams were neck and neck but during the second half of the match Black lions started to shine, with their coach’s decision to make two substitutions in the last 10 minutes paving the way for their eventual 1-0 victory; a victory leading to mass celebration from supporters and players a like.

Over the last 6 weeks GAFFER has been very busy indeed. We have had the Quarter Finals for KCL4 running parallel to the Quarter Finals for the Andrew Murch Memorial Under 16s Tournament and there has also been lots happening with the HIV training; so here is an over-due update on all the above.

Firstly the Kasigau Champions League – all Quarter Final matches have now been played and we have seen four very strong victories from Jora, Sorbibor, Kiteghi and Black Lions, each of whom beat there opponents by at least 2 goals. The highlight of these matches would have to be the Black Lions vs Samba Boiz match because both teams come from Maungu and are big rivals and as chance would have it, their Quarter Final match was the last of the four. The days leading up to the match saw both teams camped out so they could fit training into every hour of daylight, and when the big day came there was no disappointments: the supporters were out in force, we had a FIFA referee booked and we were provided with an hour and a half of fantastic football with an impressive victory from Black Lions and gracious defeat from Samba Boiz’s.

As for the Under 16s Tournament, again lots of great football and promising potential seen in the players. The highlight here would have to be the Makina vs Miasenyi match. Due to the Makina team being made up largely of Somalis, who tend to be very tall, and the Miasenyi team being probably the youngest and smallest of all the Under 16 teams, this really was a case of the David and Goliath (see the photo). However, on this occasion David was not victorious, despite putting up a good fight, Miasenyi was beaten 3-1.

On the HIV front, the two day HIV training seminar referred to in the last HIV related blog has now happened and was a great success. Noah, the teacher from Alive and Kicking who ran the seminar, was a real inspiration and passed on lots of important knowledge to our coaches. This was followed by a teaching tips session with Mr Mo. The coaches are now raring to go and we are currently in the process of formalising a weekly teaching slot in all the schools where these coaches are located.

GAFFER has organised an under 16s cup tournament which kicked off on 10th August 08. The tournament, named Andrew Murch Memorial Trophy, was organised in memory of Andrew Murch whose family donated footballs and trophy for the event.

There are 14 teams competing in this on-going tournament, one team from each village primary school in the region.

Since kick off the participating kids have showed lots of interest and have been practicing hard for their matches, and as a result they have been playing really good football. There was an exciting first knock-out match between old rivals Buguta and Sasenyi, with both teams playing really quality football. This set an example for all other teams who then went on to provide supporters with many cracking goals and uplifting team spirit; bringing the knockouts to a great ending.

Quarters are now just about to start, with the first match to be played this coming Sunday (7th September). We expect great action in these matches and we will keep you up-dated as the under 16s sporting event unfolds.