SIX North-East teenagers have been chosen to represent Great Britain at a hockey world championship.

The six, who play for Durham Ninjas and Stanley Stingers in County Durham, are all in the GB under-16s squad for the ball hockey world championships that will be held in Sheffield in July.

They are: Stuart Jackson from North Durham Academy, James Hellens from Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy, Kieran Fannan from Durham Federation, Jack Wakefield from Framwellgate School Durham and Ethan and Dylan Hehir from St Leonard’s RC School.

Although ball hockey, a variation of ice hockey, is relatively new to the UK, it is popular in North America and parts of Europe and teams from Canada, the USA, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia will contest the championships.