A TEAM of police officers will travel to Gibraltar this weekend to raise money for charity.

Officers from York and Tadcaster have paid for their own travel and accommodation to represent North Yorkshire in a football tournament against their Gibraltan counterparts.

Among those taking part is PCSO Matty Lewis, from of the York West safer neighbourhood team, who will captain this year's team and has played in the tournaments for the last two years.

He said: "We have done it for the past two years for Help For Heroes and raised over £1,000, and will this year be supporting the Royal British Legion. We pay for all travel expenses, accommodation, kit etc out of our own pockets, not subsidised, and take annual leave in order to attend.

"We have police officers and PCSOs, but no Sergeants playing this year, so we're all grafters. I'm working until midnight on Thursday, flying at 6am on Friday, but our first match isn't until Saturday. We have three games that we know about but it will be knock-out so if we do well, we'll get through to the quarters, semis, or even finals."

The team will take on the Gibraltan Defence Police and the Royal Gibraltar Police in a series of 11-a-side matches in three days.

PCSO Lewis said: "In the past we have played at the national stadium, Victoria Park, which is probably the same capacity as Bootham Terrace, and a nice little stadium, so hopefully we will be there this year as well. We don't exactly get a lot of people turning up to watch, but the experience is great and now Gibraltar are UEFA registered, which they've never been before, it's a bit more publicity for them."

All donations are welcome at justgiving.com/britishlegion