There’s been great excitement at CPS in the last few weeks, with some very impressed pupils now in awe of two of their recently televised sporting celebrity teachers, Zoe Burrell and Laura Dowsett!
Zoe Burrell represented the East Grinstead ladies’ hockey team at the National Indoor Finals, held at Wembley SSE Arena, yesterday. After Zoe set up the first goal, her team went on to beat Canterbury 3-1 and have now qualified to play in the European league. This is Zoe’s third year playing for East Grinstead, where she trains twice a week, along with Olivia Camsey and Emily Thorpe, who are both in their final year at Cranleigh School. She is photographed here with them and Richard Organ, Director of 7-18 hockey and also coach for the East Grinstead men’s hockey team, who won the nationals for the 8th consecutive year.
In addition to being a Form 2 tutor and teacher at CPS, as well as coaching the U9 hockey teams, Zoe is also an OC. She has played hockey since the age of 13 and was in the 1st team whilst at here at Cranleigh, then represented the Trojans (her club in Southampton) in the U18 National Indoor Finals. Zoe continued playing hockey at Exeter University, where she studied Exercise and Sports Science, before we were lucky enough to entice her back to Cranleigh.
Laura, who has played for the Saracens women’s rugby team for the last two years, competed at the Premiership final held at Twickenham Stoop on the 17th January. Saracens, who have been at the forefront of the women’s game for over 20 years, boasting numerous Premiership and National Cup honours, were fighting to hold onto the Premiership title, having also won the cup last year. But, sadly they lost to Richmond 28-17 on this occasion.
Having played rugby since the age of ten, Laura was the only girl in the whole school who represented the boys’ team. She captained the U13 rugby team at the British School of Brussels and continued playing with boys up until she was 15. Laura then became captain of the 1st girls’ rugby at Loughborough University, before joining the Saracens in 2014, inspired by her father who also played for them.
Laura has moved to Surrey and is now a sports coach and teaching assistant at Cranleigh Prep. Last term, the U11A and U9A boys were lucky enough to be coached rugby by her, and this term she is coaching girls’ hockey. In between, she still finds time to train with Saracens twice a week in addition to her fixtures.
