MORE than 4,000 youngsters from across Europe and the USA descended upon Blackpool during the Easter weekend for the 1999 Euro-Sportring football tournament.

Teams of budding soccer stars aged between 9 and 16 from across the continents competed for trophies in the Pleasure Beach sponsored event.

The fun-filled football weekend kicked off with a party and presentation evening in The Star on Ocean Boulevard. Blackpool Mayor Henry Mitchell joined the fun, receiving gifts and pennants from the 150 participating teams from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark and America.

The 281 matches started on Saturday (April 3), carrying on on Sunday (April 4) at the Mechanics Ground, South Shore.

And it was Scotland who out-performed the field, winning trophies in six of the eight sections. But it was a home victory for the Blackpool Mechanics as they swept to victory in the under-18 tournament, receiving their trophy from Councillor Mitchell and Blackpool Pleasure Beach UK sales manager Brian Robinson.

Euro-Sportring organiser Jim Taylor said: "It was a fantastic day and everyone had a great time. We had a US team from Tampa Bay who won two and lost two. But they left extremely happy, thinking Blackpool was wonderful, so we must be doing something right."

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