At the end of a long Hockey season, Archie Burden (Fourth Form), Caitlin Calverley, Rhys Harmer and Otto Plant (all Fifth Form) were selected to represent Tonbridge Performance Centres (U17 Girls’ and U15 Boys’ respectively) at the first ever England Hockey Challenge Cup tournament. Mr Braddick, Head of Hockey, was also in attendance, coaching the Tonbridge U15 Girls’ side.

With the England Hockey player pathway changing, the tournament was created to give players who had participated in the Performance Centre cycle an experience of a high-level Hockey tournament, whilst also giving the England age group coaches an opportunity to watch a wide pool of players. Performance Centre was the next stage on from county hockey – this has now become Talent Academies.

The 16 performance centres from across England competed in four groups of four at the fantastic Nottingham Hockey centre, each playing six 40 minute games across three days. The Tonbridge U17 Girls, who Caitlin captained, in one of the games, finished the tournament in sixth place, winning three games and losing two, including an excellent 5-0 win against Taunton. The Tonbridge U15 Boys eventually finished fifth, winning five games and losing just one, as well as scoring the most goals in the tournament.

All four pupils represented their respective sides superbly well, showing great endeavour throughout the tournament and should be thoroughly proud of their efforts.