A record number of Bedford Girls’ School pupils have been selected to train at the England Hockey Junior Regional Performance centres (JRPCs) over the summer holidays.

20 girls in total from the School, who were selected based on their performances for Bedfordshire’s U15, 16, 17 and 18 age groups, will pit their wits against the best players in the East region.

Providing a pathway for players to represent the England Hockey U15-U18 teams, the JRPCs provide regular training sessions where players receive high level coaching on all aspects of hockey from JRPC coaches, with additional input from England Hockey’s centrally contracted coaches.

The JRPCs are split into two tiers, with the first consisting of six training days followed by two days of competition. If they impress, players then go on to represent their cluster squad in Tier 2. For the U15 and U17s, Tier 2 is the High Performance Assessment Camp, and for the U16 and U18s it is the England Hockey Futures Cup.

BGS Sixth Former, Kate Axford, has come through this system and gone on to represent England’s U16 and U18 teams, and has been picked again to go to the JRPCs.

Mr Mason-McLeod, Bedford Girls’ School Head of Hockey, said: “It’s a brilliant opportunity for all the girls to improve themselves further, and catch the eye of the England coaches.

“The combination of training and competition allows players to develop in a variety of situations and ensures that they are assessed throughout the programme in more than just the competition environment.”

BGS had further hockey success recently at the Bedfordshire County Junior awards, with Georgina Roberts, Florence Miller and Holly Smith winning the Most Improved Player, Players’ Player and Coachers’ Player awards respectively in the U13 category.

Maddie Axford, Alice Baker and Rebecca Downing-Holmes all won the Players’ Player title in the U14, 15 and 17 categories.