IDENTICAL twins Frances and Christina Houslop from Horsted Keynes have combined to lift a national title.

But the 17-year-old Ardingly College pupils caused confusion when they scored five goals between them to seal victory for the South in the English Inter-Regional under-18s Championship at Milton Keynes.

And they even confused themselves!

The Houslops helped beat the East 4-2, the Midlands 4-3 and draw 1-1 with the North to leave them needing a three-goal victory against the West. They found their shooting form to lead their side to a 6-1 victory.

Dad Mark thought Christina had scored four times and Frances once, Frances maintained she'd got two and her sister three. Christina thought she'd scored four but then admitted she'd got her sums wrong, while the poor match commentator didn't seem to have a clue.

Christina said: "I must say we were chuckling to ourselves as the goals went in and the announcer was getting it wrong. We have a lot of fun like that together.

"My dad got mixed up with how many goals we got because he wasn't there and got the wrong information. I just got it wrong, it was Frances who added it up right!"

The pair were part of the South team which took the national under-16s titles two years running, but they came close to missing out on a hat-trick before helping their region to its first under-18s crown in ten years.

Christina said: "It was close. We only equalised against the North with a penalty flick in the last minute and that would almost certainly have put us out of the race if we'd lost that one."

The sisters are both attending England under-18s trials again. They played together for the national under-18s in the Home Internationals and Frances went on to play

for the national under-21s last season.

Christina said: "We're keeping our fingers crossed and, although Frances has been slightly ahead of me, I think I'm catching her up now."

They have now both joined national women's Premier League side Canterbury from East Grinstead.

Frances said: "We're enjoying it. Making the step up wasn't too bad for me because of my experience with England under-21s.

"It's a great place to play and you cannot play at a higher level in the country."

Frances is in the South East Region squad lining-up against Great Britain's Olympic team for a series of three warm-up matches for the senior side in

a fortnight.

She said: "I'm looking forward to it. Christina and I are playing against internationals every week in the league, but it will be an interesting test for me to experience what it's like to face them all together."

"I'd like to go to the Olympics some day, so maybe I'll get some useful information."

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