This summer, Samuel Laird (Fifth Form) represented the South East Hockey U15 team, known as the Saxon Tigers at the event, where they came second overall – a fantastic achievement and an excellent experience for Sam. Evie Smith (Third Form) was also selected as a non-travelling reserve for the U15 Girls’ Hockey team, which was outstanding as she was an U13 at the time.
Congratulations also go to the following pupils who have been selected to be a part of the England Hockey Performance Centre in Tonbridge this year. This is the next step on England Hockey’s current player pathway, following on from County Hockey. There are three performance centres in the South East, in Tonbridge, Guildford and Northwood. The groups train approximately twice-monthly, on a combination of Monday evenings and Sunday full-day sessions, leading to matches with the other centres throughout the summer. From here, the South East team is chosen for an event in the summer called ‘Futures Cup’. To be selected for the performance centre shows a great deal of commitment and effort, especially to break into the squads after the tough Covid period so we are extremely proud of all of our students.
U15 Girls:
Evie Smith
U15 Boys:
Archie Burden (Third Form)
Rhys Harmer (Fourth Form)
Otto Plant (Fourth Form)
U17 Girls:
Caitlin Calverley (Third Form)
U17 Boys:
Harry Mundell (Fifth Form)
Our own Head of Hockey, Mr Braddick, has been a coach at Performance Centre for the last three years and is this year working with the U17 Girls’ group, having previously worked with both Boys’ groups.