Anna Wilson leads Cambridge contingent for England at European Touch Championships

Anna Wilson is gearing to make an England bow at the European Touch Championships among a host of representatives from Cambridge.

The head of operations at 52 North Health will be playing in the England Women’s 27 team, in the W27s division, with a further eight players from the city named among the 10 national sides for the competition in Nottingham from August 1, and a further four non-travelling reserves.

Wilson was selected into the England High Performance set-up in late 2018 having impressed in for the Midlands team at the nationals, but she has had to wait to take part in the championships which have not been staged since her inclusion in the squad because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

England Women’s 27s have won all three Euros competitions since the category was introduced in 2014.

“We’ll be hoping to continue the winning streak and come home with another gold medal,” said Wilson.

“I’ll be playing with two of my Cambridge team-mates in the women’s 27s team and many other Cambridge players will be representing in other categories. We’ve formed a really good culture in our W27s squad but it’s always nice to also be playing and travelling with the people you play and train with week-in week-out.”

Appearing at the Euros will be another sporting chapter for Wilson, who is multi-talented, starting with Cambridge University RUFC.

“I played in the first Women’s Varsity Match to be held at Twickenham in 2015, where we beat Oxford 52-0,” she said, but although omitting the bit about a personal hat-trick of tries.

“I then represented Cambridge City FC in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons but decided to focus solely on touch after selection into the England High Performance set-up.”

Among the other Cambridge representatieves across the England squads are Matthew Maynard (mixed open), Jamie Cone and Katherine Jones (both Women’s 27), Tom Davies (Men’s 30), Vicki Franks (Mixed 30), Sue-Ellen Godde (Women’s 35), Louise Rickard (Women’s 35) and Dan Lewis (Men’s 40), and the non-travelling reserves are Mia Watts (women’s open), Bradley Murphy (mixed open), Eimear Conroy (Women’s 27) and Hana Suzuki (Women’s 35).

“We have assembled excellent squads through a process that may be the most competitive to date for England Touch,” said high performance director Ben Powell.

“We are really looking forward to the opportunity to compete at ETC22 and feel all of our squads have a great chance to challenge for top honours,”