Hockey Season Begins With a BANG – Great Britain and England Superstar Phil Roper Visits Caterham

This year has seen a huge change in the way that hockey is delivered at Caterham School with the First and Second Years playing their hockey season in the Autumn term for the first time. The first few weeks of term have been action-packed, starting with our Welcome to Hockey session where the U12s had their first taste of hockey. Their parents were then invited on to the pitch to be coached by their children and have a try at all the skills and techniques that had been learnt in the session.

The following weekend the boys were treated to an amazing experience. Great Britain and England captain and England Hockey Performance Player of the Year Phil Roper, who has nearly 100 full international caps, two Commonwealth games bronze medals and a Euro Hockey Championships bronze medal, came to the school to coach our U12 and U13 year groups. He worked on attacking and elimination skills with the boys and then showed them how it was done by taking shots at our goalkeepers, drawing gasps from the crowds. The boys were then able to get their sticks signed by Phil who was extremely impressed by the facilities at the school and by the boys’ attitude and desire to improve.

We then moved to our first round of fixtures the following weekend against Reeds. The previous weeks of hard work had built up to this tough first fixture but it paid off as they held their own against a good hockey school. Notable results included a huge 2 – 1 win for the U13As away in their first ever attempt at 11-a-side hockey against a very strong Reeds team, as well as amazing games at home for the U12As and U12Cs, narrowly losing out 3 – 4 and 2 – 3 respectively. The block was played in fantastic spirits; the boys really enjoyed the experience and are looking forward to the season ahead and House Hockey this weekend. 

The Caterham School Hockey Academy will be running a hockey camp at October half term. Email [email protected] for more details:

Junior camp (Junior school year 3 – 6) 23/24 October.

Senior Camp (Senior School year 7 – 11) 1/2 November.