A NEW outdoor Street Snooker game at Middleton St. George Water Park is the first of its kind in the north-east. The former tennis court at the site has been re-vamped into an exciting activity centre in the heart of the village. It is due to be officially opened by Darlington’s Paul Bielby, ex Manchester United and Hartlepool player, on Saturday 21st May at 1pm.

Councillor Doris Jones said: “ The Street Snooker game is a fantastic addition to facilities at the Water Park, enhancing amenities in the village. The sports area is family focused and there are other games to play. Five a side is popular”. A new fence has been installed around the games area.

Street Snooker combines the skills of football and snooker, launched at the start of 2011; it is now starting to really take off. The innovative game is the idea of Marco Boi, a London designer and managing director of Playinnovation. Quite apart from being a massive amount of fun, it may help improve fitness and math!

Playinnovation report that Jason Ferguson, chairman of the WPBSA, said: "The WPBSA is fully behind the Street Snooker idea, which we believe to be an exciting and innovative way of introducing snooker to a whole new generation through links with other popular sports such as football.

"We see that the concept, while doing a lot for the promotion of our sport at grass-roots level, can also offer huge developmental benefits to young people, ranging from improved numeracy to physical fitness.

"Hopefully through trying Street Snooker many youngsters will then also be tempted to go and try the game for real when the opportunity arises."

With the implementation of the Street Snooker pitch, Darlington now leads the way in encouraging youngsters to participate in this enterprising and challenging new sport. Players kick a ball against a green wall that looks like a snooker table. The aim is to score points by hitting the red triangle followed by a colour. Ball placement and accuracy are essential to the game.