THE tenth Son-Rise Cup football tournament was dubbed by organisers 'the best so far by a 'country mile'.

Teams from as far as Bristol came down to the youth tournaments and a ladies' tournament. The whole event, which sees teams of able-bodied and disabled players join in the fun, raises monies for local charities.

More than 2,000 people turned up on day one, with many families among their number. With perfect weather all had a great time. Lots of handshakes and smiles towards the organisers showed that people enjoyed themselves to the full.

Day two saw the men's sevens have a battle with 34 teams playing and the time keeping and organisation were a credit to both Jason Haywood and Ian Rothwell from the Devon FA. With all those matches played, the final ended up starting 10 minutes early.

The cup went to Tavistock local lads the Lona, who beat a quality Millbridge side on penalties to claim their prize.

The Stephen Acton Respect Award, given to the person who is committed to the Son-Rise Cup went to Simon 'Billy' Venning who was voted unanimously by the event committee as an outstanding asset to the festival.

With the disability tournament on Bank Holiday all the players were buzzing with the Son-Rise 10 'nailing it' in a great fun contest for both players and the many spectators.

Thanks were expressed to Tavistock AFC and Tavistock College for their huge support and help with special thanks to all the sponsors.

The much anticipated men's charity match on Monday between teams from Tavistock Tyres and 'Grub Up' had to be abandoned due to an injury but the incident did not spoil the spirit of the occasion and Grub Up, who were leading 2-1 at the time were awarded the cup. Pete Gibson won the Tom Wakenshaw Respect Cup and man of the match was Wayne Smalley.

Allan Lewis, one of the organisers, told the Times:?'There is only one word to describe the three day event — spectacular! Everybody was smiling, everybody was shaking hands afterwards, everybody was happy.'

(more Son-Rise pictures next week).