The England Hockey League had a break at the weekend, but attention was focused on Cannock HC, where the stars of the future had the opportunity to experience a competitive tournament atmosphere.

Surbiton Hockey Club had twelve players selected, ten of them playing for Saxon Tigers teams that ended up as champions, or runners-up in their relevant competition; with the remaining two playing for Wessex Leopards.

Over the previous four months, players between the ages of 15 to 18 had received coaching with advice on nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle management at twelve Junior Regional Performance Centres (JRPC) across the country.

Players were then selected to one of four regional JRPC cluster teams: Mercia Lynx, Pennine Pumas, Saxon Tigers, and Wessex Leopards.

At the Futures Cup, with the coaches of the England Under 16 and Under 18 teams in attendance, there were four competitions, with boys and girls teams competing at both levels.

The Under 16 competitions were held strictly on a round-robin basis with the team finishing top winning the title; at Under 18 level, after the round-robin stage, the top two teams competed in the final to decide the champions; the third and fourth teams battled for the minor places.

Saxon Tigers won both the Under 16 tournaments, with the boys’ and girls’ teams winning all their matches.

The girls started with a 5-0 win over Mercia Lynx on Friday, Ellie Tait scoring the fifth goal.

On Saturday, Tait scored a hat-trick as Pennine Pumas were beaten 4-1.

And although Tait didn’t score in the last match against Wessex Leopards on Sunday, club teammate Sophie Newton scored twice in the 4-1 win; Tait finishing up as the top Under 16 Girls’ scorer with four goals.

Surbiton’s Emma Broad was Tigers’ captain, and Olivia Cooke also contributed to the Tigers’ title win.

James Gall, Surbiton’s sole representative in Saxon Tigers’ Under 16 boys’ team, emulated Tait by finishing as the overall Under 16 Boys’ top scorer with four goals, opening his account with the final goal in a 5-0 win over Wessex Leopards on Friday.

Gall scored the second goal in the 4-1 win over Mercia Lynx on Saturday, then scored twice as the Tigers overwhelmed the Pennine Pumas 6-0 to emphatically claim the championship.

Gall’s brother, Jonny was selected together with Joe Mills for Saxon Tigers’ Under 18 Boys team. Mills scored the Tigers’ first goal against Mercia Lynx, but it wasn’t enough to prevent an 4-2 defeat on Friday, after an opening 2-2 draw with Wessex Leopards on Thursday.

Tigers recovered to win 2-0 against Pennine Pumas on Saturday to earn a rematch with Mercia in the final.

In an exciting climax, Mercia won the trophy with a penalty corner conversion in the last minute to win 4-3, after the Tigers had come back from 3-1 down to level at 3-3.

Incredibly, the Tigers’ Under 18 girls suffered the same fate in their final, losing 3-2 to Wessex Leopards due to a last minute penalty corner conversion. However, their defeat was more painful, as Tigers had led 2-0 after just 14 minutes, Minnie James scoring the second goal.

Wessex Leopards had handed the Tigers a 2-0 opening day defeat on Thursday, but the Tigers bounced back to beat Mercia Lynx 3-1 the following day, James scoring their third goal. Tigers had clinched their place in the final, and a rematch with Wessex Leopards, with a 5-0 win over Pennine Pumas on Saturday.

Ellie Tait’s sister, Maddie; and goalkeeper Gaby Gavins were also selected to play for the Tigers.

The two Surbiton players selected for Wessex Leopards were Emily Caldwell and Emily Robinson, who both helped Wessex to finish third in the Under 16 Girls’ table.