Village Olympics ends on a high

SADDLEWORTH Village Olympics closed at the weekend being hailed a huge success.

Football was played on the reopened, repaired Churchill playing fields in Greenfield while the closing ceremony took place at Saddleworth School on Sunday.

The overall fair-play award — in honour of Frank Sykes, who set up the games 28 years ago with Roger Devy — was shared by Diggle and Dobcross.

Young medal-winners will receive their honours at individual village presentation nights being held over the next few weeks.

Dave Wilson, games chairman, said: “This year has been tough but the actual games turned out to be great again. The weather was good to us.

“We had teams of around 110 youngsters each representing the different parts of the district, so between 750 and 1,000 young athletes have taken part.