Charterhouse pupil selected to play for Wessex Leopards
Raphael Boulanger (P) was selected this summer by England Hockey to play for Wessex Leopards in this year’s Futures Cup tournament. The tournament took place from 22-25 August and pitted four English teams and the Scottish and Welsh national teams against each other while England Hockey selectors scouted for recruits to supplement the upcoming season’s England Hockey National Age Group Squad (the training squad from which the National U18 team is selected).
The Futures Cup tournament comprised four teams of the best U17-18 players from across England. Raphael earned a place in the Wessex Leopards team during a regional competition in July that included more than 110 boys competing for 9 spots on the West region (‘Wessex’) team. Other English teams were made up from regional centres in the East, Midlands and North of England.
Raphael’s junior hockey career started in prep school when, keen on all team sports, he was given opportunities to play hockey at school. Having enjoyed it, Raphael joined Guildford Hockey Club and had much success in Regional and National Club competitions from Under 10 to present. He was selected for the Surrey County team at 12 and 13 years old. At 14 he was further selected from his County for the England Hockey Regional training programme. There are 17 Regional ‘Performance Centres’ across England, the objective of which is to provide high quality training to develop a supply of exceptional players across England. At U15 and U17 the players can be chosen for the U16 and U18 national training squads.
Raphael helped his team to success in the Futures Cup tournament, opening the scoring in the Bronze medal match which the team went on to win. This National medal adds to Raphael’s tally of 7 England Hockey National medals including the Schools Plate Final Silver he won with Charterhouse April 2018.
We wish Raphael continued success with his hockey and look forward to seeing him in action with the Charterhouse 1st XI again this season.
Read more on the England Hockey website: http://www.englandhockey.co.uk/news.asp?itemid=44180&itemTitle=Futures+Cup+Joy+for+Tigers+%26+Leopards§ion=22
