SECONDARY school children were given the chance to see just what sports are available at Pendle Leisure Centre - and the initiative has already paid off.

The centre in Colne closed to the public for most of Saturday as part of the Lancashire Youth Sport Initiative and allowed 800 children to look at the facilities and try a wide range of activities. And when staff opened the centre on Sunday they found a queue of 50 eager youngsters wanting to try out more.

Relief duty manager Quammer Iqbal heralded the sports initiative a great success, although he admitted Saturday was extremely hectic.

He said: "Children came from all over the area to find out what we had to offer and enjoyed trying out the different sports.

"Many inquired about times of the activities and wanted more information about becoming a member."

In the swimming pool there was canoeing, snorkelling, teaching and life saving.

In the sports hall there was fencing, martial arts, indoor bowling, basketball, badminton and judo, and outside there was hockey, netball and football.

All leisure centre staff were involved and specialists in fencing and judo were also drafted in to teach the basics of the sport.

Quammer added: "It was a really good day and we gave all the children questionnaires to fill in and we were very pleased with the response."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.