The Harraby Catholic Junior Football tournament at Harraby Sports 3G Campus began as scheduled on Saturday morning despite the non-stop torrential rain showers which had started 24 hours earlier.

While not all the teams turned up, the optimistic ones who did make their appearances were able to play due to the 3G pitches being relatively free of water.

On the Saturday morning, there were mixed matches for Under-9s and 10s and also for girls’ Under-10s.

In the girls’ final, Workington beat Border City 1-0, while Warwick Wanderers Under-10s beat Unisun Athletic 2-0 on penalties.

Harraby Catholic and Moor Row Under-9s were involved in a close final match which, once more, went to penalties and the host club’s team came out on top to be crowned champions.

In the afternoon, Cockermouth girls won all their games to top their group, with Pirelli coming second. Northbank won the Under-12 mixed final, beating Moor Row.

The weather improved in the afternoon and there were two closely-contested semi-finals, in which, Unisun Athletic Under-11s beat Stanwix 2-1 and Warwick Wanderers accounted for Harraby Catholic by the odd goal in five.

In a high-scoring final, Unisun were the winners, scoring four goals to Warwick Wanderers' two.

After a promising start on Sunday morning, there was again heavy rain which put a bit of a damper on the mixed Under-8s and the girls’ Under-14 age-group matches.

Nevertheless, the games went ahead with Stanwix Under-8s beating Warwick Wanderers Red 2-0, and Stanwix girls beating Whitehaven Girls on penalties.

Sunday afternoon was for mixed Under-7s and mixed Under-13s. Despite the rain, there was plenty of enthusiasm and no shortage of skills on display with Abbeytown beating Crown Newlaithes in the Under-7s final, and Moor Row Under-13s running out 2-0 winners against Carlisle City, having beaten Gretna 2-1 in the semi-final.

Carlisle City’s semi-final was against Wattsfield, from Kendal, and City won that game 2-1.

West Cumbrian club Moor Row were well represented over the two days and they could go home happy, having won the Under-13s trophy, and coming second in both the mixed Under-12s and the mixed Under-9s competitions.

The Stanwix club won two Trophies courtesy of their Under-14 Girls’ and mixed Under-8s, while the Under-11s made it to the semi-finals.

Two teams from Warwick Wanderers also got through to the final - the Under-10s winning on penalties, and the Under-8s losing to Stanwix.

Harraby Catholic Club also had a winning finalist at Under-9s, while their Under-11s were narrowly beaten, having reached the semi-finals.

Charmaine Lakin is the driving force behind Junior football at the Harrby Catholic Club coaching her mini-driblerz as well as her Under-7s, 8s, 9s, 12s and 16 teams, the latter two teams playing in the Penrith League.

Harraby Catholic also run three girls teams and also mixed teams aged Under-10, 11 and 13.

* There will be a fundraising event at the Harraby Catholic Club on October 4, entitled “An evening with sporting friends”, which will be hosted by a former Harraby Catholic Youth team player Ian Milburn.

The speakers will all be ex-professional footballers, namely Grant Holt, Mark Boyd, Chris Lumsdon and Billy Rafferty, and the charge will be a modest £15.