AN ENTIRE pub football team has been left high and dry after their kit went missing just hours after their last match of the season.

The 13 shirts, shorts, pairs of socks and goalkeeper's kit, belonged to the Station Hotel FC, who play in the Sunday league.

The blue and white striped kit, which was new this season, was last seen in a grey holdall bag with yellow straps. The kit is sponsored by Tek-Neek sheet metal works, of Ribble Business Park, Blackburn.

The team had lost 4-2 to Darwen Alexandra in the semi-finals of the Sunday league at Pleasington playing fields, Blackburn on April 25. After the match, the team went back to the Station Hotel to present John Holton with the Player of the Year award.

Club secretary Patrick Kelly, of Kings Road, Blackburn, said: "I think I left the kit outside when I was loading the car up on Brunswick Street after the presentation. Later that afternoon I was in the car park at Leo's Carpets in Cherry Tree, but I'm not sure when the kit went missing.

"I feel more gutted than the sponsors themselves, as I was personally responsible for the entire kit. If we don't find it we won't have a kit for next season. If somebody has got it please get in touch."

If you have any information about the kit, which went missing between 3.30pm and 4pm on Sunday April 25, contact Patrick Kelly on 01254 207278.

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