Bohos champions of charity football

LEAGUE WINNERS: Bohos were the winning team of the first season of the charity indoor football league. They are, back (from left): Hayden Donnelly, Jacob Larby, Vishal Singh and Nathan Trowell. Front: Mauro Negri, Raphael Heria and Malcolm Trowell. Picture by Jack MalcolmIndoor football

by Jack Malcolm

GISBORNE’S charity indoor football league concluded its first season on Thursday night, raising $1800 for Swim for Life Tairawhiti.

Eight teams battled over six weeks to be the champions, with Bohos coming out victorious, winning the final 3-0.

The league was played at the YMCA gym, in a quick format that saw teams play multiple times a night.

Games were four-minute halves of non-stop action, and with no referees. There were no “outs”. If the ball went into the stands, it was thrown back inbounds by the crowd.

The games were social, with a festive atmosphere between players that highlighted the fun and community aspects of the league rather than it being highly competitive.

Prizegiving after the final reinforced the message of fun, with a genuine wooden spoon for the last-place team and a “sippy-cup” as the championship trophy. Other fun awards included one for “nut shot of the day”. The winner of this was awarded a bag of nuts for their efforts.

Organiser Isaac Hughes said he originally designed the league for his workplace, but it quickly expanded.

“More and more people were interested. They had a week-and-a-half to sign up and we had to turn away a couple of teams.”

Hughes has plans to run another league over summer, wanting to expand it into two divisions of six teams each, one social and one competitive.

“When I saw the numbers, I thought we could make some money for charity. We plan to have a different charity each time.”