A CHESTER Hockey Club duo have taken the next steps on the road to playing for their country.

Olly Church and George Wilkinson spent the weekend at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall as part of the latest England Hockey High Performance Assessment Camp (HiPAC).

To get to the three-day camp – where they were given a first-hand insight of what it takes to become an international player – the rising stars put themselves through a rigorous 60 hours of assessments that started in May and included intense fitness drills, skill exercises and matchplay.

Having come through with flying colours, Olly and George have now been identified as being among the best eight Under 15s players for their respective positions across the whole country.

Olly attended an England Hockey Junior Development Centre at Chester and then progressed through the West Cheshire and Wirral Junior Academy Centres and on to the North West Junior Regional Performance Centre.

Olly, who took up hockey just 13 months ago, is a goalkeeper and plays for Chester’s U15s team as well as for the King’s School’s U14s, U15s and U16s sides.

George has just made the breakthrough into Chester’s senior teams having forged his reputation as captain of his Cheshire age group team.