10th Annual Deeplish FA Awards Day

The winning team with their trophies

A few thousand miles away from the glamorous and glitz world of the Hollywood Oscars, R.A.Y (Rochdale Adults and Youth) held their 10th Annual football awards ceremony. This community enriching event took place on Sunday 3 September 2006 at Deeplish Community centre.

The awards ceremony was a celebration of the football competition which took place the week before at the new venue of Springhill High School, Rochdale on 26 August 2006. The DFA (Deeplish Football Association) competition itself is a long running project of RAY. The organisation is made up of volunteers from the Rochdale area who strive year in year out to bring the communities together under the banner of sport.

This year was no exception as far as community cohesion was concerned. Teams from Deeplish, Wardleworth, Hamer, Belfield, Bury, Middleton and Oldham all participated in this annual football competition, which has now become an integral part of the community calendar.

The competition consisted of three tournaments for different age categories and combined with all the spectators, Saturday the 26 of August was one the most memorable local football days of the year.

In the under 12’s age group the winners were Elton and Walshaw Tigers from Bury, who beat Soldiers 3-1 in the final. The under 16’s category was won by Shemoli FC who came through a nail biting penalty shoot out against Asia FC Juniors. And finally in the Open age group The Milkmen were victorious after another frantic penalty shoot out. Real Deeplish were runners up in a very tough group.

Guests at the Awards ceremony, which was chaired by Mohammed Namaan, included Julie Durrant from Rochdale Sports Development Team; the ever encouraging Councillor Sharif; Qumar Mushtaq of Sahara Grill, Azmat Khan from Rochdale Football Club and local youth worker Mushtaq Ahmed. But the real stars were the participants of the football competition who once again united under the banner of sport.

Apart from the winners and runners up trophies this year saw a few extra awards. Basa Juniors A and B were given the Fair Play Award accolade for their superb conduct on and off the pitch and a special thanks goes to Dewan Choudhury who managed these teams. Highest goal scorer of the competition was richly deserved by Amar Anwar who scored 11 goals in the under 12’s age group.

The awards did not end here as 50 leisure passes were given out by Julie Durrant to the youngsters. Following on from this Azmat Khan of Rochdale Football Club awarded teams and individuals with signed footballs and free tickets to watch Rochdale play at Spotland Stadium.

Overseeing events was the RAY chairperson Mohammed Imran who commented that: “The success of the project is not judged by the number of participants but by the overall aim of the project. The aim was to unite the different communities and this competition did exactly that.

 “This competition started 10 years ago to raise money for charity and this competition is still about raising money for charity. All this has been possible today thanks to our wonderful sponsors and supporters: Sahara Grill, The Kebab House, Rochdale Sports Development Team, Rochdale Football club and the volunteers. I can not thank them enough for their support in making this day are truly memorable day for all the youngsters”.