Eastbourne hockey club are in-line to mark 20 years

They have come a long way from their inception on the tennis courts of Ratton School.

Initially started as a school club at Ratton School, the Inline Hockey club moved over to the Cavendish School Sports Centre which they called home for 14 years.

With the opening of Skateworld the club had an opportunity to help create a unique facility.

Club member Bradly Wallis led the fundraising campaign to raise the funds for the boards, plexiglass, scoreboard and goal nets.

Skateworld is currently the only purpose-built inline hockey rink on the south coast of the UK.

In partnership with Skateworld, Eastbourne Edge Inline Hockey Club have been able to produce players that have gone on to represent the south east region and Great Britain.

Their youngest team, the under-eights, had an amazing season this year.

They won the British Inline Puck Hockey Association Southern division without losing a single game.

This qualified them to compete in the Bipha National Championships in Rotherham.

At the nationals the Edge U8s faced teams from Scotland, Wales and the other regions across England.

They started strong defeating the Scottish champions. They followed this up with wins against the Welsh representatives, another Scottish club and the Devils from Manchester (who they beat 2-1 in an incredibly tight game).

The four wins qualified them for the semi-finals against the Mooseheads.

A brave effort saw Edge come out with a 3-0 win to move into the National final.

The Devils beat their opponents to set up a rematch with the National title on the line.

Unfortunately Edge came up just short losing 4-3 to a goal with 26 seconds remaining.

The kids worked incredibly hard and produced a fantastic effort, playing in front of a much larger than normal crowd they did the club proud.

Being the second best team in the UK is a good start to their young careers in inline hockey!

The club are now preparing for the 23/24 season and are always looking for new players.

They are able to offer four free taster sessions to kids from four to 16 years of age thanks to the generosity of our sponsors this season: NXT Generation Boxing and Fitness, Straightline Consulting and Anderida Adolescent Care.

Any sponsorship they receive goes towards the cost of training and purchase of safety equipment to allow players the opportunity to participate in such a unique sport.

It’s a sport the club hope will make its debut in 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The club can be contacted at [email protected] and anyone looking to join can do so via the website eastbourneedge.clubbuzz.co.uk

Have you checked out the sport section of our website, sussexworld.co.uk? It contains football, cricket, golf, athletics, tennis and much more.