In June I was fortunate to be selected to represent England in the Women's Over 40s European Championships in Valencia. After representing the same team in the World Cup last year and finishing in an agonising 4th place we were keen to improve.

A strong start with pool game wins over Czech Republic (5-0), Alliance (12-0), Spain (3-1) and Germany (2-0) we qualified directly for the semi finals and played the Czech Republic who qualified through a play off against Spain. We dominated the first quarter of the game, scoring 4 goals and eventually won 5-1. This set up a final against our home nations rivals of Wales, who reached their first final in this division. It was a tense game, with one goal for England deciding the result. This meant we were European Champions! 

This was a brilliant experience and I learnt a lot about sporting survival in a heatwave. With the next World Cup around the corner next year and a strong team together we are already thinking and working on improving our standing from 2024.