3.15pm 2 October 2025
Independent Schools FA Bowl, First Round
Radley College 2 Shiplake College 2 aet, 5-6 on penalties (att 18)
I only occasionally dip into fixtures in the Independent Schools FA's under 18s cup competitions, usually when they fit in well with a journey I'm already making. As I had to drive from the south east back up to Manchester, a detour via Oxford wasn't too far out of my way.
The flagship competition is the ISFA Cup, sponsored by high end jewellers Boodles. Schools also have the option of entering one of three other ISFA tournaments, depending on their ranking. The ISFA Bowl is the lowest of those.
Radley is a village between Abingdon and Oxford. Looking at Google Maps, the school is about the size of the rest of the village. The playing fields are certainly huge, and on arrival I could only see a swathe of rugby pitches.
Eventually I was directed to a sole football pitch, in a far corner of the facility. It may be that association football gets more of a look in later in the school year, but it appears that Radley concentrates mainly on the oval ball game.
Henley-based Shiplake are relatively local rivals, and progressed to the next round after coming from two goals down before winning on penalties.
Radley took an early lead, then doubled their advantage after about 25 minutes. Within a minute or two Shiplake got a goal back, and they pushed on from that to get on top.
They levelled thanks to a penalty with about 15 minutes left. It looked as if Shiplake had won it in the final minute, but a sharp-eyed referee spotted a handball before the ball was forced over the line.
There were no goals in two 10-minute periods of extra time so it was settled by spot kicks. Both sides had one of their first five saved, before Shiplake triumphed in sudden death.
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