Bradford Hockey Club - men and women - have been given an 'Awards for All' Millennium Lottery grant for their junior development work.

The joint junior section of the two clubs has been running for about 12 years. Over this period the junior teams have reached national finals and individual players have gained representative honours at county, territorial and national levels.

The £2,900 grant will be used to extend their junior development programme for young people from seven to 18 by helping with equipment for coaching and taking part in the Yorkshire youth hockey leagues.

Coach Bev Barstow said: "The club is delighted to have a new home base at the new synthetic outdoor pitch at Thornton School and Sports Centre and we are hoping that hockey will become a focus sport at the centre for junior and adults."

The junior programme is already under way and open to any young players who want to try their hand at a new sport or those who want to improve their skills.

The senior match league programme for men and women gets under way next weekend. The ladies set out on their National League campaign hoping to start where they left off last season, chasing promotion to the Premier League.

They will be playing last season's opponents Southampton, Aldridge, Loughborough Students, Sunderland and Wimbledon alongside newly promoted sides, Bracknell, Woking, Ealing and Old Loughtonians. The first match is at Aldridge.

Barstow said: "The average age of the squad will make us one of the youngest squads in the league.

"New internationals, Char-lotte Fisher, Sandeep Kaur and Lindsey Inman are expected to be influential together with three young players making their mark, Nadine Merabi, Nicola Woodhead and Hannah Linforth."

The men will be looking for promotion from the county league back into the north divisional structure. They play Ben Rhydding at Thornton.

Barstow said: "One of the club's key aims will be to increase interest in hockey particularly in young people as players so that the grant will help with raising levels of participation.

"We are hoping to increase people's awareness of junior coaching opportunities to introduce the games to boys and girls from eight upwards, develop the stars of the future and hopefully produce another Great Britain captain from within the city."

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