Shropshire under-21s bidding to achieve hockey title glory

Shropshire's best young male hockey players will head to Portsmouth this weekend in their bid to capture the national Under-21 Counties Championships.

Gwynne Goodfield's 18-strong squad will be aiming to go one better than they did last year, when they took second place.

The competition, which is being hosted by Combined Services, will be played as a round-robin tournament with Shropshire playing four games over two days against the hosts as well as Cornwall, Sussex and Lincolnshire.

In a gruelling schedule, the county side will begin their campaign against Lincolnshire tomorrow at 11am followed by Combined Services at 2pm before tackling Cornwall at 9am the following day and rounding off the tournament against Sussex at 12.45pm.

Assistant boss Stephen Floyd said: "It is certainly as strong a side as any we have had in the past and we are going with high hopes.

"We don't know how strong the opposition will be because we don't play them week-in, week-out.

"It is important because it gives them a chance to play at that bit higher a standard than they normally play at."