Bristol sports team arrested for dressing as nuns in Greece

A football tour party from Bristol ended up in a Greek court dressed in nuns' habits and kinky lingerie when their fancy dress theme went horribly wrong.

Police in the resort of Malia on Crete failed to see the funny side of 17 men dressed in the religious garments on an island where the majority of people live by the Greek Orthodox religion.

The fun-loving members of the Hanham Sunday Tour, aged from 18 to 65, spent a night in a cramped police cell wearing their outfits, complete with wimples and lingerie, after being held for "scandal and misrepresentation of a costume or uniform".

And yesterday morning, still in their costumes, they were hauled before a prosecutor to answer the charges, which were eventually dropped.

Once they had got over their initial worry, family and friends of the current and ex-footballers of Hanham Athletic and Hanham's Sunday league team found the whole episode hilarious.

Hanham Athletic committee member Mark Bignell told the Post last night: "I can't stop laughing about it at the moment.

"It was just a few lads going on holiday and having a laugh. They didn't mean to offend anyone.

"It's not like it's a bunch of young lads getting drunk all the time, there are older guys out there as well, just enjoying a few beers in the sun."

The Hanham Sunday Tour is an annual trip started in the Sixties by the Sunday league team, which now plays in the Bristol Sunday League Premier division.

Mark has been on several of the tours himself. He said in previous years they had dressed up as St Trinians schoolgirls in Portugal and babies in Cyprus.

But this time, the tour organiser, known as Flipper, decided the theme would be nuns.

"I can't believe we've been dressing up for years in all these different countries and this year the lads get caught," said Mark, 31, who lives in St George.

He spoke to the Hanham Athletic chairman Mick Underhill, 56, who is also on the tour, at 5pm yesterday.

"He seemed very relieved when I spoke to him and you could tell in his voice they had been frightened about what would have happened.

"I think he was a bit gutted they had offended the Greek people. Some of us are going to Fuengirola soon and he said to check our fancy dress would not offend anyone."

The team are due back in the country on Thursday, having arrived in Malia last Thursday. But if the Crete authorities had decided to prosecute the tourists could have been held in the country for a few more weeks at least.

Mark, who plays in the Bristol and District leagues for Hanham, said: "Apparently the police had been accusing them of being drunk and disorderly earlier on but they had hardly been drinking the night it happened.

"They went to the first bar of the night and the police came and arrested them. I think the locals had phoned the police. Obviously the Greek Orthodox church has nuns and they had been offended.

"They said it wasn't just a police cell, it sounded like a proper prison and there were 17 of them in there together.

"Mick said they were buying lots of drinks for the Thompson holiday rep because she had been so good and had done everything she could to stick up for them. When they come back I think they'll be worried we're going to rib them about it all year."

A police official, who declined to be named, said: "They were dressed like nuns, carrying crosses, but wearing thongs under their skirts and showing people their bottoms and the rest."

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the charges were dropped against the group.

Malia is a resort synonymous with rowdy and drunken behaviour during the summer. In 2007, Malia residents staged a march against British tourists and the town was featured in a documentary Sex on the Beach that followed the exploits of a group of young British holidaymakers at the resort.