Pete Osborne remembers it was an honour to represent Kingston and that memory is behind the return of representative football to the borough.

Kingston’s  schools football team returned to action this season after a five-year absence thanks to the 26-year-old and Latchmere School teacher David Dowling.

Manager Dowling and his assistant re-established the team of year 6 footballers drawn from schools across the region and have led them to two wins from their five games thus far.

And Osborne, a teacher at St Andrew’s & St Mark’s Primary School, reckons the kudos of playing for the borough has helped the project go from strength to strength.

“When I was young it was always a privilege to play for your borough,” he said.

“There has not been a borough football team for five years, so with the help of the Kingston Schools Sports Partnership we decided to bring it back.

“Now the players are giving up playing for their clubs to play for us, because they get to play with the good players in the borough.”

The team recently received a new kit bought with a £500 donation from the Neil Desai Foundation - set up in the memory of the former Tiffin School student.

“I was friends with Neil at school and still see his mum,” he added.

“He was a very talented sportsman. It is fitting the charity set up in his memory has helped us out.”