THE boys from Ryelands had an arresting success this week when they beat the bobbies.

Youngsters from the estate beat Lancaster and Morecambe police 7-2 at Salt Ayre on Tuesday night.

And former Ryelands community policeman PC Mathew Betts (pictured) had to think quickly to come up with the excuses for the drubbing.

Said Mathew: "We did get whooped but it was at short notice and we could only get five officers who play in our team, they had 22 show up - plenty of fresh legs and it was only 1-0 at half time. Not that I want to you to think I'm making excuses mind..."

We say watching Ryelands was just like watching Brazil.

Ryelands Youth Worker Geoff Brand, Paul Gill, 14, Tony Smith, 14, Robert Mayor, 13, PC Matthew Betts

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