BOLTON basketball club Horwich Locos are set to launch a new training session to get more girls into the sport.

The free session will take place on Sunday December 5 at 1:30pm at one of the club's usual bases at Horwich Leisure Centre.

Girls aged between eight and16 will be able to take part in the training event, which the club hopes will turn become a regular event as more and more girls learn the skills to pick up a basketball, with club chairman hoping it will inspire a new generation of female players at the club.

He said: "We’re very excited, it’s something we’ve talked about in the past and something we’re very passionate about.

"The aim of the club is to get as many people playing basketball in the local community as possible and if we don’t have a girls team we’re missing out on half the people.

"It’s very much our first step into this, we have our junior training at the moment which is kept top being mixed so we do have a few girls that come down bit it’s something that we want to push and develop and give the girls in the community something to get involved in."

Horwich Locos, which trains both juniors and adults alike, is the only basketball club in the town and hopes to promote the sport in Horwich and beyond.

Following a challenging period during the Covid crisis, Mr Patel and his fellow coaches were relieved to be able to restart regular training sessions in September this year.

The club was also able to resume league games that month.

Horwich Juniors now hope to be able to be at the forefront of promoting the women’s game across Bolton, with the aim of the sessions to try to introduce new girls to basketball.

Mr Patel commented: "The idea is it is at a local level, so we want see people playing for the first time but if it’s a platform for people to kick on then great."

Anybody interested in registering for the session can do via a form on Horwich Locos' website.