More than 40 youngsters were put through their paces at an official launch designed to raise awareness of netball in the north Essex area.

Girls from primary schools around Colchester were in action at Netball 2000 and took part in a host of training matches and skills exercises.

The event was held at the town's St Helena School and organiser Colleen Palmer said: "We feel it's important to get girls interested from the age of 13 or 14 so they've got time to maintain and improve their skills.

"The standard is not as high in the Colchester area as it is in, say, Chelmsford where the matches are much faster, so we're working hard to improve the quality of play here."

Reaching out - youngsters taking part in the Netball 2000 launch.

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