Berkshire County Trials 2026

This year’s Berkshire Development Centre (DC) program for U13 and U14 Girls and Boys will start with County Trials which will provide DC training and assessment, after which selected players will continue with the DC program in the Autumn. Players who graduate from DC to Academy Centre (AC) will be playing competitive matches against other counties in early 2027. (For more details see below).

The planned Trials will be held at Reading on the following dates:

Each Trial will run for 3 days, starting at 10:00am (Registration will be from 9:30am) and finishing at 15:00pm (Last collection by 15:30pm). Your child may participate in more than one County Trial if they would like.

We plan to set the fees for the County Trial at £115, which is broadly in line with other Counties. The Fees for the Autumn training sessions will reflect the reduced number of sessions.

If you are interested in your son or daughter attending, please let us know as soon as possible. This is not a commitment, but it will help us to plan our Trials Program. We will need Name of child, Age Group (e.g. U14B) and the date(s) you are interested in. Please send this information by email to [email protected]. We have some financial assistance available, please let us know if you wish to discuss this. We do want to try to make participation possible for every qualifying child.

We expect to start taking live bookings from 13 April 2026 and, if you have expressed an interest, we will send you booking details before that date.

Background

The County Trials are an introduction to the DC program which is the first step on the Berkshire County Player Pathway after club and school hockey and is for committed and enthusiastic players who want to take their hockey to the next level. Players who complete the DC program may then be selected for the Academy Centre (AC) program and will be playing competitive matches against other counties in early 2027.

The dates for these fixtures are set by England Hockey and in recent years the timing of these matches has moved earlier and earlier. The Summer County Trials help bring the whole cycle forward and give the teams more time to bond.

This year we will be starting the DC program with County Trials for U13 and U14 girls and boys. Our young players will receive intensive coaching during the Trials and the Coaches will have a good opportunity to assess them.

We expect that most of these players will be invited to continue training on Friday evenings in our DC program in the Autumn when we will then be running a further 3 or 4 training sessions for these age groups as a lead up to final selection for the AC program.

For those selected to go on to AC, we will then be able to start the AC program early so that the players are better prepared for the inter-County matches.

While we are looking for promising young players to enter the DC program, the County Trials will be open to anyone in the appropriate age range who are keen to demonstrate their ability and hope to be able to play for County.

We look forward to providing some great hockey coaching and lots of fun over the long Summer break and hope your child will be able to participate.