A Badminton tournament featuring members of the public sevices and the community was hailed another success.

The Gujrat Hindu Centre in Preston teamed up with Lancashire Constabulary, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, the National Probation Service and the Connecting Communities Project to host the event which aimed to increase confidence and trust in the services. The tournament is now in its second year.

The matches were extremely competitive with players as young as nine getting through to the final of the doubles to win against the National Probation team. The Fire and Rescue Service came out top in the singles section against a formidable 15 year old.

Sanjay Tandon, Gujrat Hindu Centre Manager said, " This was an excellent day for the youngsters. Some of them played last year against the services and this year vowed to come back to win which they proved it in the doubles"

"This is a good way for the services to interact with the community and to build a relationship with them. These young people are the workforce of tomorrow and it would be a proud moment for the community to see one of their own in uniform in one of the services.

"Next year I'm sure the competition will be just as fierce but it's good to see that support is high. The community support one another and the services are no different, it's good for young people to see this"

A spokesperson for the services said, "We are extremely encouraged by what we have seen this year. We would rather not talk about the standard of badminton played by the young people here today. But on a serious note we have had many enquiries from young people about joining the services