Lynn four represent England

Four players from Lynn Roller Hockey Club represented England Roller Hockey in Novara, Italy.Lynn players Bethan McCarthy, Josh Taylor, Jack Tucker and former favourite Matt Baker, now playing for Termas Hockey Club in Portugal, took to the rink.McCarthy represented the senior women while Taylor, Tucker and Baker lined up for the senior men.Both male and female competitions were split into three categories, the top eight teams competed in the World Championship, regarded as the A competition.The second eight teams competed in the B competition, the Intercontinental Championship and the remaining teams competed in the C competition, the Challengers competition.In international roller hockey, each year it alternates between the European Championship (for England) and the World Championship. The qualification for each competition in the Worlds is dependent on the position achieved in each team’s respective domestic competition.The women competed in the A competition, due to their excellent placing at the Euros. This saw them competing with the top teams around the world, which would be no easy task as the vast majority are professional players with access to more training than the UK. The men competed in the Intercontinental Championship (Bs). However, there would be an opportunity to be promoted to the As if they were to top their group.Baker struck a hat-trick as England defeated Brazil 7-1 in their opener before they followed it up with a 2-2 draw against Andorra.The England team won their final game 20-1 against Egypt, but this wasn’t quite enough for them to top the group with Andorra having a better goal difference by one. England then faced Germany in the quarter-finals of the Intercontinental Championship and progressed with a 5-3 win.A nail-biting 4-3 win against USA in the last four saw England book a place in the final against a strong Chile team. The goals flowed in a titanic contest with Chile holding a 3-2 advantage at the interval.England fought valiantly in the second period and trailed 5-4 before Chile added two further goals as England pushed forward looking for an equaliser. Speaking after the championship, Tucker said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the championship. It was a great rink and it is always nice to play somewhere new.”Our team looked very different to what it has before with many players playing abroad which has helped massively.”Morale in the team was great, and I think that showed in the performances on the rink as we progressed well as a team throughout the tournament, seemingly getting better day by day.”I hope we can continue to improve English Roller Hockey.”Youngsters are welcome to come along to Alive Lynnsport any Friday between 6pm and 7pm and learn to roller skate and meet England’s senior female and male captains in McCarthy and Tucker.