TWO young York VX Club players were delighted to be accepted onto the VX National Programme at the sport’s recent trials – with three more impressing enough to be invited back.

Chris Town, Cain Branton, Abbie Webster, Ed Pharoah and Fraser Wood were invited to take part in trials for the England Youth Squad.

The England squad is hosted at Ripon Grammar School which is the sport’s National Centre of Excellence and is building squads at junior, youth, senior and masters levels.

The York players found themselves attending with players from a range of other clubs and were put through a number of skill assessments before being put into several game-play scenarios.

As well as the trialists, several of the established England players attend the sessions to help the coaches and to help and support the them.

York had established star Charlie Ford along with V2 world champion Scott Snowdon attending, both of whom were on hand to encourage and guide their club-mates

A little overawed to start with, the York players gradually started to relax and enjoy the session with the result that they started to show what they can do as they moved through the various assessment drills.

Finally, they were able to show what they could do in a match situation.

To start with, the matches just featured trialists, who were then mixed in with established England players. The York contingent again grew in confidence as the matches went on and gave a very good account of themselves.

Just how well they had done was borne out when they received their letters from team manager, Jess Leech, with Town and Branton being informed that they had both been successful and had been invited to the next full England training session in February.

The coaches were also very complimentary about Webster, Pharoah and Wood, with a request that they attend the next set of trials in March.

York head coach Carl Alsop said: “We are very proud that more York players are making it to the England squad.

"All five are becoming excellent players and I had total confidence that they would make a good impression at the trials.

"Being part of the England squad is also a responsibility – they are expected to be role models and demonstrate the standards expected of England players. Cain and Chris will have no difficulty doing this at all.

"I’m particularly proud of Abbie, Ed and Fraser. It is a mark of how far they have come that they were invited to the trials and I am delighted that they have soon the opportunities offered and how far you can go in this sport.

"I am impressed that all three of them are determined to go back in March and do even better – what a great attitude. Well done to all of them – they should be as proud of themselves as I am of them”