A team of police officers have stepped in with an offer to help save this year’s World Walking the Plank Championships.

The Island’s Neighbourhood Policing Team’s offer was made after organisers Sheppey Pirates announced last week that they were pulling the plug on what is one of the Island’s largest fundraisers, held for 13 years at Queenborough Harbour.

Their decision came after incidents of anti-social behaviour, including throwing eggs and missiles at the Sheppey lifeboat crew, marred last summer’s event in aid of the RNLI and led to fears among the pirates that the championships had become unmanageable.

As the news sank in, the police officers agreed they should do what they could to save the event, originally scheduled for August 14.

Sgt Stef Martin said his team had all agreed to help support the event in their own time, without charge.

“We feel it’s really important,” he said. “The community wants it to go ahead and it’s sad it isn’t. We would be happy to do it so we hope the organisers will change their minds.”

• See next week’s Times Guardian for the latest on this story.