Three Coopers’ Coborn pupils were part of an Old Loughts hockey team that clinched their first ever National Cup.

The Upminster school’s Hannah Bloy scored the only goal in the final, a 1-0 win over favourites Beeston, and she was joined in the winning team by Chloe Menear and Emily Holmes.

Coach Mark Menear was full of praise for his players as they broke their National Cup duck.

“It was a fantastic performance by all the girls,” he said. “We were comfortable in the semi-finals, and although we went into the final as slight underdogs, we played brilliantly. I’m so proud.”

Goals from Alice Willis and Ffion Thompson secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Isca in the semi-final before Bloy’s goal settled a tense final against defending indoor champions Beeston.

There were wild celebrations at the final whistle and captain Lucia Corry went up to lift the trophy.

Menear added: “Beeston is a hotbed of hockey talent being next to Repton School and we knew it would be a tough game. But we watched their semi-final and came up with a game plan to counteract them, and to their credit, the players carried it out perfectly.

“Going into the weekend I wasn’t expecting us to win, but I couldn’t ask for more from them.”

“Beeston have six England players, but if anything we could have scored even more goals against them. And to keep two clean sheets is brilliant.”