BURY Football Club and the BURY TIMES have joined forces in a ground-breaking agreement aimed at attracting more families to Gigg Lane and discovering soccer stars of the future.

The deal, which will run for three years whatever the fate of the team, means the BURY TIMES will sponsor the Family Stand and also promote what promises to be the biggest youth five-a-side tournament ever staged in the town.

Hundreds, possibly thousands of boys and girls, aged eight to fifteen, will take part in the competition which will be organised via the newsagents and take place on the floodlit pitches on the Gigg Lane forecourt.

The BURY TIMES will provide trophies and the winners will receive their prizes at half-time in one of the big First Division games.

Cheap admission to some games will be available through the paper and there will be numerous competitions.

"We are delighted to demonstrate our support for Bury FC by sponsoring the Family Stand," said Bolton Evening News and Bury Times managing director John Waters. "We acknowledge the great contribution the success of Bury FC has made to the overall well-being of the town and success breeds success.

"We are also looking forward to working as partners with Bury FC in developing youth football via the five-a-side tournament. Hopefully it will help provide Bury with champions of the future."

Bury's commercial chief Neville Neville was equally enthusiastic.

"We are absolutely delighted to have the BURY TIMES on board," he declared. "We have always had a great working relationship with the paper and we look forward to strengthening those ties over the coming seasons.

"The deal will not only be beneficial to ourselves and the paper but to families all over the borough."

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