Lancaster junior korfball players earn England call-up

Teenagers from a Lancaster club have represented England at an international korfball tournament in Belgium.

Beatrice Woodcock (Lancaster Girls’ Grammar School) and Patrick Pammenter (Lancaster Royal Grammar School), along with Eirin Kahlie Sahagun (Salford City Academy, Manchester) are part of the England Korfball North West U15 Academy pathway, run by Lancaster Phoenix Korfball Club.

They joined athletes from London and the South East in the U17, U15 and U13 age-group squads respectively, in an annual international youth korfball tournament in Flanders on Saturday October 31 and Sunday November 1.

The England squads competed against regional teams from the Netherlands and Belgium (ranked one and two in the world at senior level) and the French and German national teams.

"Congratulations to Bea, Patrick and Eirin on their well-deserved places in the England squads last weekend," said Andrew Barnes, coach of the NW Academy, which trains at Lancaster Royal Grammar School.

"They played really well and it was great to see their performances on an international stage.

"They follow in the footsteps of three previous call-ups to the England squads Corin Maden (who is now in the England Senior Development Pathway and playing for Bristol Thunder) and Freya Procter (both from Lancaster) and Masha Kraskova (from Newcastle).

"It’s challenging being a geographical outlier with our academy as most junior development is in the South East of England, but our academy is consistently producing talented young players worthy of their places in the national teams.

"Well done to them all for all their hard work and thanks to the England coaches and team managers for making the trip possible."

Korfball is a mixed gender team ball sport, developed around the same time as basketball and netball but designed to be played in mixed gender teams.

Lancaster Phoenix Korfball Club runs the NW Academy pathway and junior and adult sessions.

The North-West U15 Academy trains on Saturday mornings (twice per month) at Lancaster Royal Grammar School, and will be travelling to London in January for the first inter-region competition this season against academies from the South East, London and the East.

For younger players, as well as club sessions on Wednesday evenings (ages 7-15), there are half-termly tournaments for U11 players on Saturday mornings, with the next one on November 28. 

Adult and older youth players (13+) train on Wednesday evenings, 6-7pm with North West League games on Sundays in Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester.

For more info see HERE.