City roller hockey club made English history on a big European stage
Peterborough Roller Hockey Club Under 15s made history on a big European stage.
The city teenagers became the first English team to qualify from the group stages in 12 years of the prestigious Eurockey Cup competition in Lloret de Mar, Spain.
The team then ran into the best team in the competition FC Barcelona in the quarter-finals and were well beaten after a plucky performance, but they went on to finish an excellent fifth.
After an outstanding 2024–2025 domestic season — in which the squad captured all four major titles (Eastern Counties League, Eastern Counties Cup, National League, and National Cup) — Peterborough RHC were invited to represent England against Europe’s elite youth teams.
Drawn into Group A, the team faced a formidable line-up including RHC Diessbach (Swiss Champions), HC Liceo (third in Spain), and HC Torquel (third in Portugal) — countries that dominate the global roller hockey scene.
After arriving in Spain two days early for training and acclimatisation, the city side opened their campaign with a 1–7 defeat to Diessbach. However, the players responded superbly in their next match against Torquel, showing remarkable character and determination to come from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
The comeback began when Will Drury scored. Captain Ethan Chan then calmly converted a penalty to level the game, before Baptiste Campos fired home the decisive goal to secure victory — the club’s first-ever group stage win in Eurockey history.
Later that day, the team faced HC Liceo and once again displayed impressive composure to win 2-1. After conceding an early goal, Campos equalised and soon after, captain Chan created a brilliant opportunity and set up Drury to score the winning goal.
With two victories, Peterborough finished second in their group and advanced to the quarter-finals against a Barcelona team who had won the three previous Eurockey events. It finished 10-0 to the eventual champions.
The team also included goalkeepers Isla Procter and Charlie Comment, and outfield players Olivia Hillam, Erin Edwards, and Kristian Kalums.