We support and encourage all our juniors to participate in activity organised by England Hockey. Many play for their county, their region and even at national level.

In 2022/23, EH overhauled its Talent Strategy:

• The old Player Pathway - whereby players were nominated (largely by their county Academy Centres) to regional ‘Performance Centres’ - has been replaced with a new ‘Talent System Framework’.

• There is a huge amount of material on the EH website but it can be difficult to navigate for the uninitiated.

In summary:

• In place of Performance Centres, EH has sought to establish ‘Talent Academies’. These are intended to provide exceptional training for the top 1,000 athletes nationwide, across school years 10 to 13 (i.e. u15 to u18 inclusive).

• The operation of these Talent Academies has been outsourced to clubs which wished to tender for the role.

• The only Talent Academy serving our area is run by Timperley Hockey Club.

• Clubs, schools and county hockey organisations can nominate players to attend open trials for places at Talent Academy.

• In line with the Talent System Framework, Deeside Ramblers considers all junior players of the relevant ages and will nominate for Talent Academy trials those whom our coaches think meet the criteria contained in the guidance provided by EH. By definition, this is likely to be a small number of junior athletes each year.

Obviously, most children will not be at the level required for Talent Academy. We do, however, encourage all our juniors to attend 'Junior County (Sub Area) Hockey' training sessions arranged at county level. After initial training sessions, selected players are invited to continue training with and playing for their county in inter-county matches and tournaments.

We actively liaise with our local county associations West Cheshire and East Cheshire and nominate all committed players to 'have a go'. Most do and love the challenge. A number of our own club coaches are involved with the running of these county sessions. So your child will have every opportunity to progress as far as their talent and determination can take them.

Or they can just turn up to play friendly hockey, now and then. Every child is welcome whether a hockey-mad obsessive, a complete beginner, or someone who juggles hockey with other sports and interests.

More information on England Hockey’s Talent System, click here.