HOCKEY at Barnard Castle School has seen a great deal of success again this season. With the number of fixtures outweighing any other sport in the school, it is no wonder.

In the Prep School, where pupils start playing from Year 3, both the U10s and U11s won the County Championships. The U11s will now go on to compete at the Northern semi-finals to be held at Barney on Friday, March 6. The top two teams from this tournament will progress to the North Final later in the month.

In the senior school the U12s and U13s were very unlucky to finish third in their County Championships. The U14 team reached the Northern semi-finals, but sadly did not manage to make the play-off for a place at the North Finals.

The U16s won the Durham Schools’ County Championships and both the U16s and U18s competed at the Northern semi-finals in a play-off for a place at the North Finals.

Coach Chris Gregory said: “All our teams have done exceptionally well this season.

“Players who have stood out this year are Kitty Barker in the U12s, Abigail Pearce in the U13s, and Eleanor Shannon in the U15s. Maddy Forsyth in the U14s would be my overall stand out player, she has worked very hard on her game over the last 18 months and as a result her game has really developed.

“I am excited to see how she much she can develop over the next 18 months if she continues with the same enthusiasm to get better.”

Mr Gregory also made reference to Isla Hewitson, who has made it into the Scotland U16 squad this year, a tremendous achievement. He acknowledged how hard she has worked for this and the sacrifices she has made over the last 12 months to achieve her goal.

Isla is the only Scottish player in the team and has to travel to Galashiels every Monday to train with the south performance team, where she is coached by the most capped Scottish player, Janet Jack.

Isla is hoping to go to Holland at Easter to play in her first international and expects to compete against England in a match at Leeds in the summer. Isla has ambitions to play in the Olympics, her role model being Sarah Robertson who played in the women’s team at 18.

Hewitson said that School has been extremely supportive and has liaised with her Scottish coaches to ensure that her training programme can be incorporated into her training at School.

In a bid to give as many girls as possible a chance to be part of a hockey team, Mr Gregory introduced an U15/14B and U15/14C team. This meant that the majority of Year 9 and 10 girls will have had the opportunity to represent the school at hockey.

This term the boys will be playing competitive hockey matches. There are two boys who are worthy of a special mention. Cameron Lewis and Fergus Hewitson have both made it through to the Durham Pumas JRPC squad (North East squad and only one small step below Full North Honours).