A WARRINGTON teenager will hope to maintain her scoring form when she represents England in water polo this week.
Former Culcheth High School pupil Lucy Mills, 16, flies out to Czech Republic today with the country’s under 17s squad to contest the three-day EU Nations Tournament in Brno from tomorrow, Friday.
Centre-forward Lucy, whose education is continuing at Winstanley College in Wigan, is top scorer for Tyldesley Water Polo Club’s National League team this season.
She is also in the Great Britain training squad preparing for the European Championships in Volos, Greece, in September.
“In this year’s National League she’s scored 41 goals, which I think is second highest in the league," said her dad Chris, who along with her mum Sarah and grandparents rack up the miles and minutes to ensure dedicated Lucy is able to attend training with the numerous squads she is involved with.
“She trains typically six days per week," said Chris.
"Invariably she gets a Friday off because she’s usually got something going on most weekends.
“She plays in the National League Division Two for the Tyldesley senior women’s team.
“She plays for North West in the National Inter Regional Championships.
“Then there's the England stuff, including the EU Nations this weekend.
“She did two seasons playing for England Schools, and went to Malta two years ago for the European Championships.
“And then on top there’s the Great Britain training. She’s down to the last 15 players, with 13 to travel to the European Championships in Greece in September.”
Despite still being 15 at the time, Mills, who is studying A levels in English language, business studies and PE, scored three goals and was ‘most valuable player’ in the England under 17s team which won bronze in the EU Nations Tournament last year.
"That will be Lucy's highlight in water polo so far," said Chris, who recalls his daughter's move into the sport coming eight years ago.
"The whole family has a long history with Tyldesley Swimming Club. I was a member, my parents were on the committee.
"She joined the club about age seven as a swimmer and then the swimming led to polo.
“She tried other things before finding what she liked.
"In the same way that my parents took me to the swimming club so that I could just swim, that’s what we did with Lucy and it just really went from there.”
Lucy represented England Schools for two years, which included two European Championships campaigns.
She was Tyldesley Water Polo Club player of the year in 2018.
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