TWENTY THREE young sports players from the Caradon area joined together with other youngsters from Cornwall to form the Eurobell Cornwall team. They travelled to Southampton to compete in the Millennium Youth Games against 52 County teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The event was organised by Sport England, the total cost including the 43 Area Youth Games was £7.2 million. The Millennium Youth Games is the largest youth sporting event to be held in Europe.

The Cornwall team consisted of 103 competitors making up 10 squads in Mixed Athletics, Girls Hockey (both from Caradon) Boys and Girls Basketball, Girls Football, Boys Hockey, Netball, Mixed Swimming, Mixed Tennis and Girls Rugby. The teams were also accompanied by 16 staff made up of Sport/Recreation Development Officers, P E teachers and volunteer coaches.

Councillor Eric Lewis, Leader of Caradon District Council said, "The Caradon competitors earned the right to join the Cornish team by being the winning District team at the Eurobell Devon and Cornwall Youth Games in July. We are very proud of their achievements at The Millennium Youth Games. I am sure their involvement in the Youth Games will inspire them to continue in their chosen sport and I wish them the brightest sporting future. Well done to all 103 competitors and staff who represented Cornwall".

The event was officially opened by Kate Hoey MP, John Prescott MP and Sally Gunnell. The Cornwall team, in their black and gold colours, were led into the Southampton Athletic stadium by Dawna Dennet (Truro), Amy Collings (St Austell) and Kevin Ridges (Looe) to the cheers of supporters that had made the trip along the South Coast.

The main sporting competition took place on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th and despite being drawn in a number of extremely tough groups the Cornish team performed extremely well overall.

The Athletics competition followed a brand new format, a team quadrathlon, each member of the team competed in a running, jumping, throwing and relay event. The team was coached by Martin McHugh (Looe School) and supported by Phil Brown of Caradon District Council. The Athletics squad gave some strong performances particularly in the Mixed Medley from Anne Stokes - 200 metres, Kay Howells - 100 metres, Ben Hall - 100 metres, Simon Hunt - 40 metres. An inspired last leg from Simon Hunt brought the team from 6th place to 2nd place in their heat and the team recorded a position of 7th overall out of 52 entries in this event. The Athletics Team finished in an admirable 23rd place overall, 17 places above local rivals Devon who finished in 41st place.

The Girls Hockey team from Caradon were coached by Emma-Jayne Smith of Liskeard Hockey club and were well prepared for the games. The team was managed Tracey Pickup of Penwith District Council at the event and competed well despite being drawn against some very tough opposition. They were knocked out of the main competition despite a good draw with Nottinghamshire (0-0) before losing to Manchester (2-0), Hampshire (0-2) and narrowly to Kent (1-0)

The Boys Basketball team managed by Chas Newham (St Austell Hawks) had to tackle extremely talented players from inner city Birmingham and Manchester. Despite the standard of the opposition the team from the Restormel Borough recorded an excellent victory over Northumberland (18-11) and held the Birmingham team to 10 points (10-20).

The Girls Basketball team, a tight unit from Wadebridge coached by top player Alex Boardman (Bude Bats) and managed by Helen Dymond (Launceston) recorded a number of excellent victories particularly over Humber (10-8) putting them top in their group on day 1 and progressing to the main competition. The competition on day 2 became more difficult with narrow defeats to Cheshire (12-14) and Northumberland (16-20). Despite this the team finished in the top 25.

The Tennis team from Penzance managed by Chris Babb (North Cornwall Sport Development) excelled in difficult conditions at Winchester Tennis Club and recorded victories over Birmingham, Cheshire and Teeside before narrowly losing to London Town 3 matches to 2. The Cornwall team successfully progressed to day 2 by qualifying for the main competition (top 20 teams) but lost narrowly to Hampshire and Wiltshire.

The Netball team, managed by Claire Stephens from Penrice School, St Austell, struggled in the early rounds against quality opposition. However a high goal tally from Rachel Bustin (St Austell) helped the team to victories over Derbyshire and Durham before losing narrowly to Hertfordshire.

The Boys Hockey squad were by far the most successful Cornish team finishing in the top five. They recorded victories over Worcester and Hereford (1-0), Black Country (3-1), drawing with Derbyshire (2-2) and Edinburgh (1-1) before losing to eventual finalists Northern Ireland (0-2).

Phil Brown, Caradon District Councils Assistant Recreation Development Officer co-ordinated Caradons involvement in the games, he said, "The Cornwall team gave an excellent account of themselves on and off the field. We knew it would be difficult competing against teams with much larger catchment areas than ours such as London and Birmingham, but were not overawed by the situation. The organisation of the Cornish team has been very much a team effort co-ordinated by the six District Councils of Cornwall. I would like to express my thanks to all the coaches, teachers and volunteers who have supported out efforts over the last two years".

There are not many quality sporting facilities in Cornwall and it is often difficult to travel to the facilities that are available. However the Local Authority Sports Development Officers are now working in partnership with Schools and National Governing Bodies of Sport to provide more opportunities for Cornish youngsters, such as competing in the Millennium Youth Games.

Following the high standard of performances at the Millennium Youth Games the sporting future for Cornwall certainly looks brighter.