Barnet is facing a sporting crisis of confidence after limping in 32nd out of 33 London boroughs in this year's youth sports tournament.

Only the Corporation of London which has two schools and 5,000 residents fared worse in the London Heathrow Youth Games this month.

Tory councillors blamed the dismal performance, in which Barnet scored just 498 points compared to 1,122 by winners Havering, on a lack of support from the borough.

Some trials had suffered from a lack of publicity resulting in no-one turning up, they claimed.

And the absence of a borough sports development plan still not published some two years after being promised has hampered clubs' attempts to gain funding, particularly from the National Lottery.

A post-mortem is due to take place later this month and Toby Wilson, who is the head of Barnet Sports Development, told the Times Group: "The emphasis this year has not been to enter all the sports but to enter a selected few and increase opportunities for participants.

"This has inevitably resulted in Barnet receiving an overall low position."

Geoff Morphitis, treasurer of Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers athletics club, said the wider implications of neglecting sports were drugs, graffiti and crime among youngsters.

"Barnet does not have a focus for sports. That puts us in with boroughs like Hackney and Islington, which is a shambles," he said.

Councillor Brian Coleman, GLA member for Barnet and Camden, slammed the poor results, saying: "We have dismantled the youth service which used to handle a lot of this."

Matthew Nixson