Emma Watson in action

Harry Potter star Emma Watson swapped her broomstick for a hockey stick to take part in Oxford's first International Young Women's Hockey Festival at the weekend.

The 15-year-old plays Hermione Granger in the series of movies based on JK Rowling's bestselling books about the young wizard, and attends Headington School.

She took part in the festival as a member of the Rover Sports Oxford hockey team, which, along with City of Oxford and West Witney, faced players from Oxford's twin cities of Leiden, in Holland, and Bonn, in Germany.

The matches were played at the new Oxford University Sports Centre, in Jackdaw Lane, off Iffley Road. The girls also enjoyed a disco, ice-skating and a reception hosted by Jim Campbell, the Sheriff of Oxford, at the Town Hall.

One of the organisers, Oxford City Council's international officer May Wylie, said: "We have been looking at hosting more events and thought hockey was a great sport we could focus on. All of the girls stayed with local host families.

"We had also hoped to also have a team from our twin city in Russia, Perm, but unfortunately they could not meet the air fares."

Oxford's Lord Mayor, Bob Price, welcomed the twin city teams to Oxford on Friday.

He said: "Oxford's twinning links are strong and enduring, because they're built on personal friendships between colleagues from the various countries, who share common interests in sport, culture, arts, the environment and religion. "We hope that this event will be the start of many new friendships.

Mr Price added: "It's a particular pleasure to be able to bring together representatives of several twin cities for one big event.

"As we have seen most recently, with the performance of the Bernstein Mass in October, such multi-twinning events foster a tremendous sense of international camaraderie."

The hockey festival was abandoned with just one match to go on Sunday, because of a hailstorm.

At the time West Witney and Leiden were joint leaders, but Leiden were eventually named victors, because of the number of matches they had won.

The girls then attended a celebratory party at West Oxford Community Centre, before the Dutch and German visitors set off for their flights home.

Ms Wylie added: "It was really a festival of sport taking part was what counted. It went very, very well, really brilliantly, and we were all invited to Bonn next year."

Among the 'Twinning Twins' were four sets of twin sisters, including rising hockey starletsTakara and Tacita Haines, who play for West Witney.

Takara has been selected for the England under-16 team and will be playing in Holland for England over Easter, while Tacita has been selected as a non-travelling reserve.

8:51am Tuesday 11th April 2006

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