For the very first time a team of junior women (under 21) represented England in an International Championship. The EJCC is held in January every year to decide which teams will qualify for the World Junior Championships - 2 men’s teams and 2 women’s teams go through and this year it was Scotland and Russia (men) and France and Czech Republic (women) who won through and will join the top 5 European teams from last year’s World Juniors.

For England’s girls who have been playing for just 1-3 years, and never away from Kent, it was a baptism of fire as many of the teams they were playing have had 4 or 5 years of experience at this level. But the first game was against an equally novice Slovakian team and there was great rejoicing when this was won by 9-1. However reality struck in the next three games, but after bad starts in all three the girls settled down and were not overwhelmed as much as the final scores might indicate. Finland (11-2), France (16-3) and Germany (12-0) were the conquerors, but it was a valuable learning experience for the team and hopefully it will lead to further entries in this competition.