Ian Henderson meets a remarkable inventor of gadgets to aid young sportsmen and women with special needs

HURSLEY-based inventor Edward Smith has developed a penalty kick simulator for aspiring young footballers.

His prototype goes on show in Winchester next week at a time when penalty shootouts are likely to figure heavily in the later stages of Euro 2004.

Edward, a retired sports coach and housemaster at Millbrook School, first began developing aids for youg sportsmen and women in the 1950s. His first effort was aimed at cricketers, being a device to enable them to bowl a good length.

When the bowler hit a low pressure inflated mat at the right length a bell would ring!

The product was endorsed by the then Hampshire CCC coach Arthur Holt, who took a number of them with him as he toured the county.

Edward took out a patent on the device and managed to sell a number of them to schools around England.

But the pressures of his academic work prevented him from continuing his inventions until well past his retirement.

Then, in 1998, his granddaughter Alexandra developed diabetes at the age of just three and he set out to find ways of aiding research into the illness.

"I racked my brains until I realised that I should put on my inventor's hat again after a 30 year interval," he told me.

Since then, with the assistance of his wife Dell, he has developed similar aids for young tennis players, cricketers and now footballers under the brand name Alexso, a combination of the names of their granddaughters Alexandra and Sophie.

A modern version of the device for bowlers has received endorsements from Hampshire's director of cricket Tim Tremlett, coach Raj Maru and even the English Cricket Board.

Now he's set to unveil the penalty-taking system at Innovention 2004, an exhibition being held at Winchester-based company Intech next Friday (25th).

I took a close look at it this week and discovered that a simulated 'goalmouth' has target areas. You need to hit the blue or orange targets in the corners to register a goal.

Different sounds arise and lights flash as each target area is struck and the most unwelcome is the green area in the middle of the 'goal'.

Happily, I managed to find the corners with most of my attempts!

It's easy to see how the gadget could improve the skills of young children with special needs and Edward is hoping it'll take off in a big way.

"Any profits we make from the sale of the device will go to diabetes research," he told me.

Now a sprightly 84, Edward says he'll have to pass on the prototype to a company to develop, providing they agree to continue to donate to the research.

"It's too much for me now to get involved in all that, but I'll still keep coming up with ideas," said this remarkable man.

"In the meantime I'll be cheering for England during Euro 2004 and hoping they can score from any penalties they receive!"