THE Yanks are coming and they aim to beat us at our own game.

Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania arrive in England on Thursday and will travel to Heywood to take on local teams.

Led by chief coach Eric Wagner the touring party will play three or four friendlies and visit the many attractions in the North West.

On Saturday the students will watch Oldham Athletic open their Coca Cola Championship League campaign against Yeovil at Boundary Park, before 'haring off' to Belle Vue for the greyhound racing.

They then return to their digs at Hopwood Hall College for an early night as they prepare for Sunday's match against a Heywood Reform Select at Phoenix Park - kick-off 10am.

The hectic weekend continues when, straight after the match, the visitors head off to Ashton Cricket ground to shout home Heywood CC in the final of the JW Lees Wood Cup. It should be an interesting afternoon explaining the game of cricket to 18-year-old Americans.

The visit will be the third in recent years by an American College squad, but Swarthmore's first. It started when football coach and school teacher Jack Edwards accepted a coaching position in the USA. After several successful years he arranged and organised a visit to Heywood while at St Mary's College in Maryland. The tour was a great success and was repeated last year, when the college's men's and ladies' teams visited Heywood.

This summer Jack has moved on and teamed up at Swarthmore with Eric Wagner to set up the current tour.

It will be a hectic 10 days for the students, who also play Heywood Town next Friday 12 August - kick-off 6.45pm. If previous tours are anything to go by it will be 10 hectic days they won't forget.

It is hoped the public of Heywood will turn out in force to support the two games and give the team from across the pond a warm welcome.