Sports club in Rotherham has five sets of twins in ranks | UK News

A sports club that has five sets of twins playing for its youth teams has spoken about its unusual claim to fame.

Rotherham Hockey Club’s junior section has 60 members – and a sixth of them have a twin.

They range from 17-year-olds Eve and Charlotte to Mabel and Florence, who are just five. Two other sets of twins are also girls – Violet and Daisy, nine, and Harriet and Finola, 10 – and the fifth pair are 12-year-olds Francesca and Joseph.

Head of junior development Archie Busby said: “As the years go on and more kids come down, you think ‘there’s another set there and another set there’ and suddenly you look and think, wow we’ve five sets of twins. It’s a bit special.”

The youth coach admitted it could get confusing at times on the training pitch.

“Sometimes I do look down and wonder which one is which, but it’s nice to have a family connection.”

Eve and Charlotte Burghin, the oldest twins who also play for South Yorkshire, are part of a hockey dynasty, as their parents met through the sport.

Eve said they saw their relationship as an “advantage” on the field.

“I love it, I look over and I know where Charlotte’s going to be and what she’s going to do. I also know what will annoy her.”

Charlotte added that opposition teams sometimes mixed the pair up.

“They end up marking the wrong twin.”

For their father, Andrew Burghin, watching his daughters play together is a “proud moment”.

“It’s often lump in the throat stuff,” he said.

“As a sport it’s a family thing, dads play with sons, mums and daughters, it goes through the generations. Socially it’s a great sport to play, you can be sat next to a decorator or doctor, people from all walks of life, it helps socially more than any other sport.”

Dan Fletcher is the father of the youngest twins, Florence and Mabel, and admitted that training at the age of five involved a lot of “swinging sticks and squabbling”.

“Generally they get on pretty well. They love it here, it’s a fantastic family sport.”

The GB hockey squad has a set of twins in the women’s ranks, Sophie and Olivia Hamilton.

Mr Busby said he did not know whether there was a world record for the most twins who were part of the same sports club.

“Maybe we’ll have a look one day – who knows, it could be us!”