More than 100 youngsters took part in a new school hockey tournament in Felixstowe – with organisers hoping it will become an annual event.

Felixstowe Academy and Felixstowe Hockey Club (FHC) held the day, with Grange Primary School, Trimley St Mary Primary School, Colneis Primary School and Causton Junior School each taking along 30 pupils to the academy for a day of inter-school “quick stick” games.

The tournament was a joint initiative between England Hockey, Felixstowe Academy and FHC to get primary school children playing hockey so that when they feed into the academy, they have some experience of the game.

Teachers from the schools had previously been invited to take part in an England Hockey training course co-ordinated by FHC and the academy, so they had the knowledge to teach basic hockey in their schools in PE lessons.

Sarah Logan, from Felixstowe Academy, said: “It was great to see over 100 youngsters playing games and learning hockey skills and all students seemed to be having fun – both the leaders and the primary school pupils.”

Becky Williams, head of youth development at FHC, said: “The tournament was a huge success and even the sun shone!

“As a result of the day we have had a number of enquiries from youngsters wanting to join the club, and some even came back the next day to sign up for youth training.

“We hope to make this an annual event and work closely with the academy to promote hockey in Felixstowe and the surrounding villages.”

Some 34 sports leaders from the academy who are working towards Level 2 awards took charge of the skills element of the day, running drills for the pupils while FHC coaches and umpires oversaw the tournament.

The FHC youth section has grown rapidly over the last year, with over 100 youths now signed up and attending training on Saturday mornings.

The club has this season seen its men’s 1st team secure promotion to Premier A, and both girls and boys U-10 teams qualify for the regional finals of the In2Hockey tournament.