Trent Students Compete in the Four Nations

Published on isbi School News dated Friday 3rd of May 2013

Over Easter two Trent College students were involved Hockey playing for England at International level. Olivia Hopkisson from Year 11 was asked to play in the Four Nations tournament England under 16's and Chris Proctor from Year 13 was the captain of England U18's boys in the 4 Nations Tournament held in Valencia. This is such a great achievement for both students.

Olivia maintained her school work whilst keeping up her hockey commitments. She said of her experience, 'In April I was selected to play in the 4 Nations Tournament for England U16 Girls pending a rigorous selection process beginning in November. Alongside revision, it was a very busy time for me however a challenge I was more than happy to undertake.

Our starting match was against Scotland and was our introduction to international hockey. Scotland, a newcomer to the tournament, proved to be a decent squad who were determined to come out on top. However, we were able match this, and came away with a win of 2-0, an excellent start to the tournament. The Saturday saw our toughest match against the highly regarded Dutch team. They showed star quality, extreme skill, and great fitness that proved too hard to beat as we lost 6-1; however just playing against them was an incredible learning curve for me individually. On the Sunday we faced Germany, a talented squad, who we hoped to defeat. We played some great hockey but it just wasn't enough. Success was harder than anticipated and unfortunately we did not manage it. This result put us in the 3rd place play-off where we would play against Scotland again! The Monday's performance had to be our best of the tournament; the whole team dug deep and used each other to our advantage, allowing us to come out 4-0 victors.

Winning a bronze medal was a great achievement and something that an English Junior girls team hasn't done for a while. It was a challenging, rewarding and exciting six days that I hope to be able to do again. I have been selected to play against Ulster this coming weekend and we have three games over the bank holiday weekend. There are further international camps in June and July when we play Belgium and Germany.'

Chris also had a successful experience, explaining that, 'Over Easter I played for England U18 Boys in the 4 Nations Tournament held in Valencia. This was the second year for me playing at this level and it was a great experience. It was an amazing feeling of honour to captain my country against the best teams in Europe including Germany, Spain and The Netherlands. Although results didn't favour us in this tournament with two losses and a draw it was a good learning curve heading into the Europeans this summer. Last weekend I enjoyed more success with Beeston H.C. winning the U18 Indoor National Championships.'

Mark Wadsley, the Head of Hockey here at Trent said, 'It was great to have two Trent College pupils representing England this summer and continues the strong hockey tradition here. Chris was lucky enough to captain his country which is a great honour few manage to achieve. He should now set his sights on pushing for a place in the Junior World Cup in December. This will be a tough ask but if he keeps developing he will stand a good chance. Olivia has worked really hard this year and should aim to pick up as many caps as she can over the next few months. We wish her well in the future.'

Well done to both Olivia and Chris on their achievements playing for England.