A high street bank will be helping Hillingdon Council kit out young people representing the borough this year in the Heathrow Youth Games.

The Uxbridge branch of HSBC has struck up a sponsorship deal with the council to provide £3,000 for t-shirts, baseball caps and polo shirts for the 500 youngsters. The sponsored uniforms will feature the winning design from a competition organised by the council's sports development team, which will be unveiled in June.

The games, which take place in Crystal Palace on July 8 and 9, have been running for 23 years and are the largest of their kind in Europe. This year, 20,000 young people aged between 11 and 18, including 500 from Hillingdon, will compete in 50 sports ranging from football and hockey to angling and archery.