Pippa Middleton has told how she used her "petite" frame to weave past "bigger-chested" classmates during hockey at Marlborough College - and revealed her teenage crush on the coach.

The Duchess of Cambridge's sister said that, as a teenager, she was able to use her small size to her advantage during school sports and described her competitive streak.

She also spoke of her "gruelling" cross-country runs and "horror" of the swimming gala.

Like her sister Kate, Pippa attended St Andrew's School in Pangbourne, Berkshire, before going on to Marlborough College.

Writing in the Spectator magazine, she said: "When I close my eyes and think about school sports, I envisage myself on the hockey pitch, stick in hand, a luminous gumshield locked on to my chops and a bandana across my forehead.

"Boys are watching. I can also hear the booming voice of Mr Markham, our fierce but undeniably fanciable coach, urging us all on."

It is thought the reference is to Richard Markham, a former history teacher who taught both Middleton sisters at Marlborough College.

He later left to become take up a role at Hockerill Anglo-European College in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, where, upon his arrival, the school's chairman of governors, Sally Havers, described him as "a strong leader" with "intellectual clout and integrity".

On netball, Pippa said: "You spend most of the time playing a complex version of piggy-in-the-middle, except the piggies are a pack of vicious girls.

"My petite physique enabled me to nip and tuck my way past the bigger-chested girls.

"Elbows always helped, as did the derriere for defence (my 'chest'

hadn't developed back then) and a bit of shoulder-barging here or there.

"It was brutal, but turns out to have been very useful practice for handling the media in later life."