year's North American Soccer Championship Games which is being staged outside the United States for the first time.

Cal Smith, one of the chief organisers for the event, says he received confirmation from almost half of the anticipated 40 teams for next September's event when he accompanied the Bermuda Police team to the recent tournament in Philadelphia.

The Bermuda Police team finished fourth in their group in the Competitive Division which involved nine teams. The event was staged by the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge and was limited to persons in the field of law enforcements, active or retired.

In their four group matches, Bermuda Police had three draws and a loss. They drew 1-1 with the Toronto Secret Service, lost 3-0 to New York Police Department and then drew 1-1 with Vancouver and 2-2 with St. Louis in their final two matches.

Vancouver, the eventual winners, were trailing 1-0 to a Daniel Reece goal before scoring an equaliser in the closing seconds. Smith suffered a broken wrist in that match while Reece went to hospital afterwards with badly bruised ribs. Smith called the match a "grudge match''.

In the St. Louis match, Bermuda Police were leading 2-0 before St. Louis fought back to snatch an equaliser in the last minute.

"We should have won the tournament,'' Smith said. "In the three games we drew we were leading, but the defence let us down in the end when we allowed teams to come back and score in the last minute of the game.'' The tour also served as a warmup for the new season for Police who play as Prospect in the Second Division.

Some of the teams confirmed for next year's tournament in Bermuda include defending champions Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto, York Regional, St. Louis and five women's teams.

Bermuda Police will send officials, and possibly a team, to an indoor tournament next March in Washington DC when they will further promote the tournament here.