A baton twirling group which is taking youngsters to compete in the world championships this year has been awarded nearly £3,000 to help fund the trip.

The Northern Creation Twirling Team received the cash from Awards for All, which has awarded a total of £603,500 to community projects across Yorkshire and Humberside.

The Rawdon-based twirling team is a new group teaching children a variety of skills, including dance, baton twirling, gymnastics and nutrition advice.

The £2,398 Awards for All grant will be used to fund a trip to Barcelona for the world championships this summer. It will be the first time a team from the North of England has competed in the world championships in more than ten years.

Eight girls aged between 13 and 22 will be competing.

"There hasn't been a northern team taking part since 1991, so we're really proud," said coach Debbie McCleod.

"We have a team and four soloists taking part. They'll have to go through preliminary rounds before six teams are chosen for the final.

"The money will go towards travel costs, accommodation, training and the hire of halls to practice in. We use venues across Bradford."

The team will compete against baton twirlers from Japan, America, Canada, France and Holland.

Debbie said events like the world championships are helping to get baton twirling taken more seriously as a sport

"People confuse us with majorettes but we don't perform at the same kind of functions. We're an indoor sport, like gymnastics, and focus on taking part in competitions," she said.

"In Canada baton twirling features regularly on a national sport TV channel and we hope this will rub off on Britain."

Debbie and fellow coaches Zoe Flesher and Jenny South, who is the main choreographer, will be accompanying the team to Barcelona.

"We still need about £5,000 to cover costs of the trip, equipment and training," said Zoe.

"We don't receive regular funding and rely on sponsorship and donations.

"We'd love to hear from any organisations wishing to sponsor us."

Anyone interested in helping the group is asked to ring Zoe on 0781 8898402.