News

A tournament to remember for girls football!

2nd July 2026

Last weekend, Rugby Borough Women & Girls FC welcomed 109 teams and 1,414 players to Kilsby Lane, from our U8s right through to our U18s, with teams making the journey from as far as Essex and Sheffield. Two days of football in glorious sunshine, with a brilliant atmosphere from start to finish, and our biggest fundraising event to date!

The weekend in numbers

Our tournament has been running for many years, and every single year it takes an incredible amount of people giving up their time, their energy, and in many cases their whole weekend to make it happen. This year was no different, and we wanted to take a moment to say a proper thank you to everyone who was part of it.

On the pitch

The football was brilliant all weekend. The U16s final was a Borough versus Borough affair that went to 26 penalties to find a winner, a shootout that will be talked about for a long time.

This year we introduced a Champions League and Europa split, giving every team more games and more chances to win silverware, and every single team went home with a player of the tournament trophy. It was wonderful to see so many young players recognised.

A special thank you to the Coalville and GLK U10s, who helped with litter picking across both days. It really did not go unnoticed, and it says a lot about your clubs.

Thankyou for another amazing tournament, best one we go to, extremely well organised and brilliant club ❤️

Coalville Ravenettes U10s

A massive well done to Gaz

None of the extras this year would have happened without chief tournament organiser Gaz, who had the biggest ideas, the longest to do list, and somehow pulled every bit of it off. The custom stage, the stocks for soak the coach (very popular in the heat!), the shooting challenge with our first team players, the pocket money stall that the little ones absolutely loved, the kit stall. Gaz’s vision came to life and really helped make this the biggest tournament yet! Thank you.

Thank you to our sponsors

We are so grateful to our sponsors, without whom this tournament simply would not be possible.

Particular thanks to:

Iron Mountain, who helped set up the site on Friday and had their own team of volunteers on the ground across the whole weekend
Unusual Rigging, who built our custom stage and the stocks as well as running the very popular pocket money stall
Rugby Printer, who printed the banners that brought the stage to life

And to our trophy sponsors, who made sure every team and many players went home with something to remember the weekend by:
Amber Utilities, Meridian Finance, Green Cameleon, Pure Pegasus, Light Weight Mobility, The Blind Company UK, South Warwickshire Construction, Fiesta Farewell, M E Solar, Bux, The Daisy Garland. Your support means the world to us.

Thanks for a great tournament today guys and girls. All games played in great spirit, a good level of football in all the groups and really well organised as usual. See you all next year.

Crusaders Yellow & Green U10s

Thank you to our referees

A huge thank you to our referees, many of whom are young members of Rugby Borough. Charlie, Archie, Mia, Amber, Liam, Dan, Rosa, Oliver, Tony, Finlay, Vas, Emma, Sam, Megan, Chloe, and Tom: you gave up your weekend, you worked hard, and you did us proud.

Thank you to our women’s first team

A huge thank you to our women’s first team players who came down to support the tournament, run their challenge stall, and present trophies to our winners on stage. Katy Morris, Mai Moncaster, Alanah Mann, Bethan Roberts, and Sian Osmond, you were brilliant with the girls and it meant so much to our younger players to have you there. Thank you!

Thank you to our volunteers

This is the part I really want to get right, because a tournament like this runs entirely on the goodwill of people who just show up and get on with it. Thank you to all of our coaches and their parents who gave up their weekend, and to every single person who helped: Sharon, Mark, Ross, Olly, Ryan, Matt F, Adam, Justin, Gareth, James, Tom, Hannah, Kara, Katy, Vadim, Neve, Kerry, Bex, Danielle, Brooke, Matt B, Oliver, Duncan, Sandip, Mark G, Nicola, Eleanor, Kat, and Megan.

A huge thank you also to our committee members Mark G, Sharon, Kara, Katy, Ross, Dan, and Mark W, who between them planned every detail and managed everything from welfare to parking, putting in 12+ hours a day across both days. Kara even spent her birthday there.

Thanks all for a fantastic day yesterday. Some really good footy on display and really well run tournament.

Mawsley FC U13s

Thank you to the Iron Mountain team (thanks to Natalie for arranging) who came and worked alongside our volunteers: Anujan, Sharon K, Zara, Julie, and Lilly-Mae. Thank you so much, especially to Zara for organising the team and for personally spending 3 days at Kilsby Lane setting up and running the stalls and face painting!

A special shout out to our young members too, the kids of volunteers, coaches, and committee members, who spent two long days helping out without being asked twice. You are the future of this club and we are all so proud of you.

Thank you to Brian, who saved the day when the ice cream van broke down by getting a backup on site. And to Kathy and the whole team in the clubhouse, who kept everyone refreshed with cold drinks throughout. You were so appreciated in the heat.

To everyone who was on site across both days, doing everything from registration to running stalls to keeping things moving: we see it, and we are so grateful.

See you next year!

To every team, player, parent, sponsor, referee, volunteer and vendor who came and made the weekend what it was: thank you. It is a privilege to host you, and we cannot wait to do it all again.

For more photos captured on the day, see our photo gallery here.