College hosts FA Parability Festival

This winter, Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire Football Association and Cambridge Regional College are coming together to host a Parability Festival at the Cambridge Campus.

The Parability Festival provides an opportunity for young people with physical and neurological disabilities to access indoor sporting activities during the cold winter months. Delivered in two parts, January saw the first of two events take place in a six-a-side football tournament. 

Director of Supported Learning, Jeremy Lloyd said, “We are committed to providing our learners with a range of opportunities including extra-curricular activities to enhance their learning and skills development. It is our pleasure to be able to host community-based activities, such as the Parability Festival delivered by the FA, as it allows us to provide inclusive activities for young people with disabilities and for them to enhance their skills and community participation. 

Delivered over the course of a morning, the Para-Football Tournament utilised the two main sports halls at CRC, to allow matches to be played consecutively, reducing the amount of time players were waiting for their next match. Teams from CRC Cambridge campus, CRC Huntingdon campus, Cambridge City (A team and B team) and Peterborough College took part in a round robin of matches, with teams ranked by the number of overall goals scored. 

The final match of the morning saw a face-off between CRC Hunts Campus and CRC Cambs campus, adding a final element of excitement to the day as the two CRC teams battled to be winners of their ‘local derby’. Team captains, and college tutors, Yann and Pablo stood pitch-side cheering on their players through an evenly balanced game that saw each team score 2 goals by full-time. There was only one thing for it………a penalty shoot-out! After each team member had taken their penalty, CRC Hunts emerged victorious with a further 2 goals.  

Ryan Kay, Football Development Officer for the FA said, “Cambridge Regional College has amazing sports halls, with viewing areas that allow all players to be involved at every stage. We are grateful for the use of the facilities to enable this inclusive sporting activity to take place. We saw some amazing football and it was clear that the players were happy and proud of their performance.”

The second part of the Parability Festival will take place in March.