A SPORTS teacher from Chetwynde Primary School has become an England Hockey Women's Champion.

Katy Costa, the Head of Key Stage two at the school was selected for the over 35s female masters team representing the North West of England.

After an intense two-day competition, the Barrow born player and her team mates emerged victorious in the contest which pitted them against some of the best players from around the UK.

Katy said: "I've been a teacher for ten years now at Chetwynde and I've always done the PE here.

"I've been playing since I was a teenager in school and I previously played for Ulverston Hockey.

"For me, as I just turned 35 this year it meant I was eligible to play for the master’s Team.

"It was something I had always been interested in playing at this level so I went for it.

"I went to the trials and managed to get in. Then we went down and won.

"The trials were over a few sessions in Macclesfield. After three sessions, and then we made the selection and joined as a defender.

"I got onto the side representing the North West in the National Competition.

"It was five matches over a weekend but it was really fun.

"There were the group stages on Saturday where we played the North West, and then South Central and then the East.

"When Sunday came around, we were playing in the semi-finals against Midlands which went to penalties. But we were able to get through.

"Then we played East for a second time in the finals, and we beat them 3-1.

"Each match was 25 minutes each way so it was a lot of playing for one day. It was fun but all quite tough.

"I got to meet a lot of new people. Most of the team were predominately from Manchester and a lot of them have played at a high standard for a long while. One of them will play at the England Over 35s master’s team in the World Cup in August.

"It was clearly a good team to be part of.

"The lady who actually got me into hockey originally, Karen Tyson from Kendal Hockey club, is playing in the over 40s on Saturday."

Katy is looking forward to returning to training and defending the teams title next year.

The school wrote on social media: "We would like to send a huge congratulations to our Head of Key Stage 2 Mrs Costa who today has become an England Hockey champion for the North West lady masters over 35s team.

"Quite an amazing achievement.

"Huge well-done Mrs Costa."

Katy is also organising the Primary MegaMAT games for Chetwynde, an event that is also sponsored by South Cumbria Multi Academy Trust.

On May 19, she ran a Year 3 and 4 Quicksticks hockey comp at Furness College, and more are planned for the future.