A SCHOOL hockey team has been devastated after their equipment was stolen just hours after they competed in a tournament.

Hundreds of pounds worth of hockey gear was taken by raiders who broke into the school bus after removing a panel from a garage door at St Wilfrid's High, Blackburn.

Hours earlier, the team had returned as runners-up in the final of the Lancashire Plate tournament.

School spokesman Harold Gillibrand said: "They're all devastated. Everything's gone including sponsorship shirts, sticks and goal-keeping equipment.

"It's going to have a detrimental effect until the end of the season."

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