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Nottingham Hockey Centre Host Challenge Cup

Tuesday 26 July sees the start of the 2022 Performance Centre Challenge Cup (PCCC), this year’s event, hosted at Nottingham Hockey Centre, will see over 1100 players participate with an opportunity to be exposed to a broader talent pool within a high-stakes competition. 

 What is The Performance Centre Challenge Cup (PCCC)? 

The PCCC brings the curtain down on what is currently known as the Player Pathway. PCCC provides valuable competition exposure and experiences, enabling the further development of players in the performance foundation phase of the Player Pathway.  

The event will run from Tuesday 26 – Sunday 31 July with two tournaments running back-to-back. The Under 15s will compete from 26-28 July, followed by the Under 17s competition from 29-31 July. 

PCCC, by its scale, is an ambitious proposition bringing together a total of 1152 players for competition exposure in a strong peer v peer environment, testing players against their peers from across the whole country, giving the players participating a tournament and environment which provides an inclusive opportunity for players to be considered for England Age Group activity. In addition to the England Age group coaches, a team of England Hockey-appointed scouts will be observing match play activity and speaking with Performance Centre coaches to get insight on the players who are not only performing currently but also have the potential to thrive in performance sport environments. 

Who is Participating? 

There are currently 16 Performance Centres in England, each of which will bring 18 players from their U15 and U17 training squads, boys and girls. 

The Performance Centres are:

  • Bristol 
  • Bury 
  • Durham 
  • East Midlands 
  • Fylde 
  • Guildford 
  • Manchester 
  • Northwood 
  • Reading 
  • South Midlands 
  • Southampton 
  • Taunton 
  • Tonbridge 
  • West Midlands 
  • Weybridge 
  • Yorks 

 Tournament Format  

Each Performance Centre has been placed in an initial group of 4. The teams will play 3 x 40-minute matches over the first day and a half.  

The rankings will place each team in their second pool with all the 1st placed teams in Pool A where they play a second-round robin of matches, all 2nd placed teams in Pool B, 3rd placed teams in Pool C and 4th placed teams in Pool D. 

At the end of all the activities, we will arrive at an overall 1-16 ranking. 

Nottingham Hockey Centre will be hosting the event across all of their 6 pitches with The University of Nottingham providing the perfect venue for accommodation, just a short walk from the hockey venue. 

Reporting 

England Hockey will be reporting from the event each day. A link to the digital programme, and sharing the schedule and team lists will feature in the first of these reports. 

Thank you 

As we transition from The Player Pathway into the Talent System, we want to recognise and thank everyone who has been involved in the Performance Centre programme to date in providing many young hockey players with the opportunity and guidance to optimise their ability at an individual level and as part of a team. 

There are many people to thank including the players, parents, coaches, managers, administrators and facility owners. Without your ongoing passion, enthusiasm, dedication, knowledge and expertise, programmes like this, wouldn’t be viable. We look forward to working with many of you in the future. 

More details about the new talent system can be found here.