Saffron Walden Hockey Club s Laura Sugar has been called up to the Wales under 18 squad for the European Championships which start on July 6 in Madrid. The Saffron Walden County High School pupil has been part of a large squad of 30 for the past year wor

Saffron Walden Hockey Club's Laura Sugar has been called up to the Wales under 18 squad for the European Championships which start on July 6 in Madrid.

The Saffron Walden County High School pupil has been part of a large squad of 30 for the past year working towards the championships and was selected for the final 18 after a training weekend in Cardiff, where Wales took on Australia under 18s in a friendly match.

Laura, who qualifies for Wales through her father, is delighted to be in the squad and can't wait for the event to start.

She said: "It was unexpected to get in last year, but I've worked really hard since then

and I'm so happy to be selected.

"I'm really looking forward to it now and I'm sure the tournament atmosphere will be great."

In their pool games Wales will face Scotland, Belarus and the Ukraine at the championships for teams ranked ninth to 16th in Europe.

Wales are ranked 15th in Europe at present,

but Laura hopes they will win promotion to the

top league.

She said: "The coach has said we are the best under 18 team he has had and we have a good shot of getting into the top eight in Europe.

"Two countries go up into the top eight so hopefully we will get into the final.

"We are going there full of confidence as we have seen how much we have improved since we formed in August. I can't wait for it now."

Laura will attend another training camp this weekend, before flying out to Madrid where the squad will be fine tuned before their first game on July 7.