Story by David Ainscough
The rain might have been bouncing down, but nobody cared about being forced into the SUFC Academy’s indoor facilities. The BNDfC bus was pumping a blend of dance, hip hop, reggae, and eastern beats into the arena and the event kicked off into its familiar festival flavour.
Eleven teams began the tournament, some familiar from last year; Sheffield Prowlers, Dream Team, Spectrum Stars, Nacro, and also many new contenders; Algerian Fox, Chesterfield, Soldiers of Allah, Yemen Utd, Galeed Giants, United Nations and Somaliland.
On 13th August 2005 the challenge went on for league positions. The final on 20th August was contested between Yemeni Utd and Nacro. United had most of the play throughout, but Nacro defended well and the game concluded as a 0–0 draw. So tournament was to be decided on penalties with Nacro pronounced Burgreave Cup Winners for 2005.
Organised by BSN and BCAT, with funding from BNDfC this tournament deserves a much bigger audience. The enthusiasm and atmosphere created by the multicultural mix of players taking part, make it unfortunate that more people don’t get the chance to see what is taking place.