Superstar of the Sand (Sarah Kempson)

A three-page interview with Sarah Kempson, the England skipper who became the inaugural winner of the Beach Soccer Worldwide women’s player of the year award, taking the honour in Dubai ahead of Brazil’s Leticia Villar and the Netherlands’ Grytsje van den Berg. Kempson, from Littlehampton and playing her grass football for Lewes, was also MVP as Portsmouth finished runners-up in the Euro Winners Cup before England won the Euro Beach Soccer Cup. She explains how different the sand game is, demanding pure speed-endurance and the technique to get the ball off the ground, and notes that goalkeeper Lucy Quinn can shoot. She details three twelve-minute periods with roll-on substitutions, credits coach Perry Northeast, and discusses funding limits, the likely first FIFA Women’s Beach Soccer World Cup, and showing her trophy to pupils at Durrington High School.