IT was double delight for Davenham School’s footballers in the Northwich Mini League last Wednesday.

Ahead of England’s semi-final clash with Croatia in the evening, 14 schools from across Northwich battled it out for the NML trophy at Leftwich Primary School on a gloriously hot afternoon.

Davenham beat Kingsmead 2-0 to lift the NML tournament shield along with the NML trophy.

Now in its third year, the tournament is a culmination of the NML league, run throughout the school year.

Simon Robinson, PE teacher at Leftwich and the brains behind the league, said: “We started running a league six years ago, which included just four local primary schools. We have now grown to 17 local primary school, 14 of which attended the tournament.

“It was a great day, really busy and there was a lot of positive feedback.”

As well as hosts Leftwich, primary school children from Davenham, Comberbach, Wincham, Hartford Manor, Kingsmead, Barnton, Hartford, Witton Church Walk, Winnington Park, Charles Darwin, Weaverham Forest, Lostock and Cuddington took part.

The tournament is seven-a-side with four groups followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.

Youth Kicks Coaching also assisting the staff with the running of the tournament.

“We had a Youth Kicks stand on the Astroturf for the youngsters when they weren’t playing in a match and they were queueing up to take part,” said Simon.

“Two coaches took on two players ad the first side to score three goals or the first to nutmeg the opposition won. It was really popular.”

After the final whistle blew the end of season trophies were presented to the winning teams.