Hampshire Constabulary

You are here: Home → News & Campaigns → Press Releases → Portsmouth police and wardens give youngsters one last game before the summer ends

Portsmouth police and wardens give youngsters one last game before the summer ends

Press Releases

Published: 01/09/2010


On September 1, Portsmouth City Council’s community wardens and two of Cosham’s Safer Neighbourhoods teams (SNTs) joined forces to hold a community football tournament for youths in the area.

Officers from Cosham & Paulsgrove SNTs and wardens from the Cosham area organised a 5-a-side tournament with the help of other agencies and companies to give kids an exciting end to the summer holidays.

The day-long event had six teams playing in total, including police, community wardens, students of the King Richards School, youth support workers Motiv8, and youngsters from around the area.

PC Dan Darwin, who co-organised the event, said: “We have been taking part in this event for a while now. The warden’s efforts in engaging with the community through sport has been a great success in the past, and kids are often eager to join in and play against the police. I think it’s a great way to build relationships with younger members of the community and break barriers between them and the police. We’re really pleased to be involved and I hope we can get other schools participating in the future.”

Competition was fierce but fun during the games, and after a day of high energy matches the youth team ‘The Young Boys’ won the tournament and were presented with the winners trophy and medals. Runners up were also given medals, and police team ‘Hot Fuzz’ even gave their second place awards away to kids, showing good team spirit.

Community warden Jan Thomas said: “We’ve been running these tournaments for around four years, and each year they have been more and more successful. I think the kids really appreciate the opportunities they get to do this with us; it is such a popular activity and it improves not just the kids’ social skills and fitness, but also the bonds we build with them, which benefits the them, as well as us and the police.”

The event was held at the new Goals football centre at Eastern Road, where teams were kindly allowed use two brand new pitches free of charge. The Co-operative funeral directors also lent a helping hand, donating £60 to cover the costs of food and refreshments for the players during the day. Youngsters were given a real treat at the brand new football centre, and had a free barbeque at lunchtime.

Jan Thomas added: “We would like to thank the Co-operative funeral directors for their generous donations today, and Goals for allowing us to use their pitches free of charge. Without these companies we couldn’t run these events so successfully.”

To find out more about your local Safer Neighbourhoods team, you can log on to www.hampshire.police.uk and click on ‘Your local policing team.’ Alternatively you can call 101 and ask for your local team.  


Copyright © Hampshire Constabulary 2012.

News | Freedom of Information | Complaints | Reporting Crime | Disclaimer