THE custodians of one of the country's oldest surviving games have thanked the town for their support despite the pandemic.

This year's Uppies and Downies series was cancelled for the first time in its 350-year recorded history.

Despite the set back, players pressed ahead with plans to raise much needed funds for local charity West House, which supports people with learning disabilities.

Players and supporters from both teams come together each year after the Easter Game series to raise cash for a local cause.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, things had to be done a little differently, but this did not stop them raise £3,628.58 for West House.

Uppie Elvin Jarvis, who organises the charity events, said: "Myself, David Shepherd and Lewis Shepherd would like to thank everyone for their continuous support towards the charity, this has certainly been one of our biggest challenges and without the local businesses who donated raffle prizes to our charity and people buying raffle tickets, putting change into the collection tubs and local shops kindly letting us have tubs in their businesses, we would have struggled a lot more.

"With losing the duck race and the charity night we have had to come up with new ways of still raising money.

"I did a charity chest wax and we had a Facebook raffle with a Uppies and Downies ball as first prize and an auction as well.

"We are really pleased that we have managed to help a local charity and the funds are going to help and support West House so much."

James Cox, chief executive officer at West House, said the charity was grateful for the efforts made despite the challenging circumstances.

He said: "We have received over £3,5000 from them which is fantastic.

"We are really grateful that they have put the effort in to fundraise on our behalf despite the difficult circumstances this year and particularly that they were not even able to hold the Uppies and Downies series this year.

"The money raised will be extremely helpful and will enable us to continue to offer valuable and varied activities for people.

"We hope to spend some of the money on computers to enable the people we support to access the internet and also use money for future outings and trips once restrictions ease further for people."

As well as providing care and activities for adults and children with disabilities, West House also runs three 'training' cafes where the people they support can learn skills and gain qualification to find employment.

They are Café West Whitehaven, King Street; Café West Workington, which is inside Workington Library and Café West Keswick, which is in Fitz Park.