WEST Somerset youngsters have been given a sporting chance thanks to a £500 grant from local civic leaders. New equipment designed to promote team work and physical skills at the Exmoor Rural Skills Workshop at Simonsbath has been bought with the financial aid from West Somerset Council. And the district authority's leader Cllr Steven Pugsley called into the centre to meet members of the Somerset Rural Youth Project's West Somerset team, who run it, to see some of the new equipment in action. He watched a group of year eight students from Kingsmead Community Middle School in Wiveliscombe. The team is involved in developing a variety of youth-based schemes to support young people living in rural areas of Somerset. SRYP's community manager John Stow said: "The sports equipment provided through this grant will be used for years to come in outreach work. "Anything that can be done to give young people in rural areas the chance to learn skills and achieve something positive in an area that matters to them, like sport, is really welcome." Cllr Pugsley is pictured at the back, second right, with, from the left, Maddie Robinson, Rob Dibble and Julie Graham. In the front, from the left, are Josh Blackwell, Paul Cridley, Dan Pocock, Josh Gough and George Rowe. Photo: Steve Guscott.