The fifteenth annual waste industry 6-a-side tournament saw 30 mixed-gender teams go head-to-head for the prize of being the sector’s football champion.
2017 saw more teams than ever enter the competition, with Bagnall & Morris Waste Services, Bywaters, DHL, Grundon, FCC Environment, Sharpsmart UK, Suez, SWEEEP Kuusakoski, Valpak, William Tracey and Wybone all fielding sides.
Mick George, which has regularly reached the latter stages of the competition only to leave empty handed – reached the final after a strong showing in the group stages, registering four consecutive victories over Suez, Astute, Reconomy and SWEEEP, all without conceding a goal.
The team’s imperious performance in the group saw them earn a bye straight through to the semi-final as the strongest qualifying team, and the extra rest proved crucial in their victory over Bywaters in the knockout round.
Biffa had a tougher route through to the final, finishing top of their group after picking up a win and three draws against Simply Waste, LKM, Grundon and Sharp Smart.
However, the Biffa team seemed galvanised by the tough test in the group stage, and raised their game for the knockout rounds, recording a 4-1 victory over Bagnall & Morris, followed by a 3-1 win against the three-time champions Valpak in the semi final.
The two sides were evenly matched in the final, Biffa taking the lead in the first half only to be pegged back shortly afterwards. The teams couldn’t be separated throughout the rest of normal and extra time, so the competition had to be settled through the lottery of the penalty shootout.
Both teams showed composure from the spot, scoring all of their early penalties, but in the sudden death and needing to score to stay in the game, Biffa were cruelly defeated when their final effort rattled the crossbar.
Tournaments
Other winners included Kenny Waste Management, who won the Plate Tournament with a 3-1 against SWEEEP in the final, Astute won the Vase tournament after beating 1st Degree 2-0, Veolia lifted the Bowl trophy registering a 2-1 victory over Suez, and in the Jug tournament Acumen recorded a 3-0 final win over Reconomy.
Individual prize-winners included Veolia’s Daniel Green, who won the Crossbar Challenge— sponsored by WasteAid— while the British Bins Top Bins Challenge was won jointly by Lewis O’Neill and Elliot Spillard of Spillard Safety Systems.
The event was hosted on the playing fields at the University of Northampton’s Park Road campus. The university runs a number of academic courses relevant to the waste management and recycling sector.
This year’s Waste World Cup was organised by letsrecycle.com with charity donations going to WasteAid. Pitch sponsors were Spillard Safety Systems, Astute Technical Recruitment, Hadfields, Smart Solutions and Red Kite.
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