White nets Euro place

BELGIUM BECKONS . . . Nicola White is pictured (left) at full stretch for England.

Hockey:

OLDHAM’S Nicola White is in the England squad of 18 athletes for the TriFinance EuroHockey Championships in Antwerp, Belgium from August 17.

White is among nine London 2012 bronze-medallists in the squad.

Treble Olympian and long-standing England captain Kate Walsh will lead her team out on Saturday week for the opening pool fixture against Spain.

England head coach Jason Lee said: “Since April it’s been a steep learning curve for some of the new girls coming into the squad, but they have coped with everything incredibly well and I’m excited to go out to Belgium and see what we can do. We’ll go there full of confidence.”

England has been drawn in Pool ‘B’ alongside Germany, Spain and Scotland. On paper Germany will pose the biggest threat, but Spain and Scotland, at world rank 14 and 19 respectively, will also pose a considerable threat.

The EuroHockey Championships will be shown on the BBC red button, online and on iPlayer.

England’s first match against Spain starts at 9am UK time.