HOCKEY players from King’s Schools (King’s College and King’s Hall) have been selected for the England Hockey Performance Centre.

Milly Frankis, Eliza Chippendale, Abi White, Beth Barzotelli and Alec Sprague are already training within the Performance Centre, to be joined by Martha Lawford, Ben Davies, James Rew, Lizzie Chetwode, Sam Cobb and Harry Blakey.

The Taunton Performance Centre selects the best 18-20 players at Under-15s age group level from a significant number across the West.

There are two performance centres in the region (Taunton and Bristol) and as Taunton is the most westerly of these, they cater for the whole of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and much of Somerset.

Somerset County Gazette:

SELECTED: Alec Sprague.

This year, the numbers moving from JAC (Junior Academy Centres) to the performance centres have been reduced so that the programme is now focusing on fewer players of a higher standard.

Clare Hayes, the director of hockey at King’s College, said: “This is a huge achievement considering the lower number of players now being selected into the centres, especially as three pupils have achieved this level a year early.”