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When taking his dog for a walk in his local park Dave Russell, one of our former members, got into conversation with another walker and the talk got around to Little League and the tremendous opportunities it gives for children to engage in sport. To cut a long story short Dave was asked by his companion if Little League provided any activities in which his young grandson could participate, the upshot being that Dave started training sessions for about 5 or 6 boys and girls aged from five upwards. Word quickly spread and soon we found that our sessions had grown to such an extent that we had to split the children into two groups to cater for the varying ages and experience.
There is no doubt that these sessions were, and continue to be, very popular and for the last few years these children who by now were known as the ‘Bantams’ have been playing games of football on the Little League mini-soccer pitch every Saturday after the mini-soccer matches have finished with the teams being made up on the day and divided in terms of age and ability.
 The parents of the ‘Bantams’ are very enthusiastic and have supported the league with their children taking part in sponsored walks whenever these have been arranged by the league. They obtained sponsorship from the Randall Tavern for a new playing kit and Dave was also successful in securing a second kit sponsored by Royal Mail.
At our Cup Final days the Bantams usually have a share of the glory when they play ‘friendly’ matches after the Academy Cup Final and before the Premier Cup Final.
Some photographs of the Bantams are shown below, you can see that despite some of the games taking place in bitterly cold weather- hence the track suit bottoms - all of the girls and boys are very enthusiastic.


 





 



The following photographs were taken when the Bantams played two exhibition matches on Cup Final day and the two teams are wearing recently sponsored kits, the maroon/blue by Royal Mail and blue/red by patrons of Randall Tavern.
Week 5 onward
The Bantams and the Wildcats played some demonstration matches at the 2006/07 Cup Finals and here are the teams:
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