P & G Surrey Youth Games

The weekend of 19 and 20 June 2010 saw over 200 children and young people from Spelthorne compete in the P & G (Proctor and Gamble) Surrey Youth Games 2010, the largest youth sports event in Surrey.

The athletes competed against approximately 2000 other young people from the 11 boroughs of Surrey over two days. Team Spelthorne entered 25 teams across nine sports and put in some fantastic performances.

On the Saturday, competitors took part in badminton, Boccia, cricket, hockey, judo, netball and tennis. After some tough competition Spelthorne teams won:

gold in girls’ cricket
silver for junior hockey, junior boys’ and girls’ judo
bronze in Boccia, junior squash and senior girls’ judo

Sunday saw an equally varied programme of sports with competitors entering in boys and girl’s basketball, girl’s football, boy’s football (for those with moderate learning difficulties), girls’ and boys’ hockey, high 5 netball, senior squash and swimming. There were some more fantastic results on the second day of the competition with Team Spelthorne gaining:-

gold for boys’ hockey and football
silver for girls’ hockey and senior squash

After much hard work and effort Spelthorne finished 5th overall - joint with Reigate and Banstead.

All Spelthorne’s competitors receive between four and nine weeks’ coaching before the games with almost 130 coaching sessions taking place across the Borough. These sessions were delivered by a dedicated team of coaches and volunteers and the aim was to get young people involved with a new sport or enhance their current skill level. Many competitors tried more than one sport and competed in several sports during the weekend of the games. It is hoped that as a result of the coaching and the competition weekend, that many of the young people involved will join local sports clubs who supported the coaching sessions, and continue to take part in their chosen sport.

Councillor Denise Grant, Cabinet Member for Young People and Cultural Services said: “All the young people who took part in the games deserve congratulations for their efforts and for doing so well.

“Each time this event is held, we see young people taking part in more and more different sports and we are now looking forward to celebrating the young people’s success, as part of the annual sports awards event at Kempton Park on 15 July. We shall also begin working towards next year’s games”.

In July all of the young people from Spelthorne who competed in the games will have the opportunity to celebrate their achievements at the annual sports awards evening. For full listings of the results please go to www.activesurrey.com.

For more information about the P & G Surrey Youth Games and how to get involved in the future please contact Spelthorne Borough Council Leisure Services on 01784 446433.

For further information please ring 01784 446452