As the cricket season hit full swing around them, football-crazy Market Drayton Tigers scored another massive six hit at the weekend.
The club’s Super Sixes Tournament, the biggest of its kind in the county packed Greenfields.
Players from almost 160 teams fought it out in 10 age-group competitions cheered on by big crowds of backers.
Family, friends and fans turned the whole arena into a colourful jamboree of sport, spread out over 18 pitches.
And this year there was a dream Under-14s final thrown in for good measure – a clash between a Tigers squad led by Ian MacKintosh and neighbouring Nova United.
With no goals in normal time, the clash was eventually decided by a Golden Goal ruling – which sent Nick Locke’s Newport-based Nova lads home delighted.
Tigers Under-12 Girls also made the final of their contest, putting up a brave show before bowing out to Crewe and Nantwich, who have a much bigger contingent of players to choose from.
The tournament helped demonstrate the growing interest in girls football generally.
Tigers spokesman Steve Hunt said: “It was noticeable that we had a bigger entry of girls teams than normal.”
Clubs from Liverpool, the West Midlands, Stoke, Wales, Shrewsbury and throughout Shropshire and Staffordshire tried their luck.
Almost 300 games were played on the Saturday and more than double that number on the Sunday, when Greenfields was filled to bursting.
Another good pointer to the strength of local soccer came from the refs – nine of them were from last year’s Tigers Under-15 team.
Steve said: “It just showed how Drayton people of all age groups get together to put on this tournament. There’s an awful lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes and we are immensely grateful to a great number of people.
“That said, we’d like to pay special tribute to Bob McLaughlin’s work setting things up and the RAF for the loan of equipment.”
