L1 Resume Their Super 6s Campaign This Weekend
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Ladies resume their Super 6s Championships Premier Division campaign this week at Repton School, hoping to build on their fifth place at the halfway stage and qualify for the Finals Day at the Copper Box Arena on 29 January for the first time.
Over the first weekend, Surbiton drew 2-2 with Repton; beat Sutton Coldfield 5-2, lost 2-0 to East Grinstead and finished with a convincing 6-2 victory over Sevenoaks.
Surbiton start the second half of their campaign at 12.30 pm against 2020 Champions, Buckingham, who are in contention for another Finals Day appearance after winning three games and losing one to begin Week 2 in fourth place, behind Bowdon on goal difference.
East Grinstead are top having won all four games with Repton in second, only dropping points in the game against Surbiton.
Buckingham are on a run of three successive wins after losing 4-2 to Bowdon in their first match. A 4-3 victory over Leicester; a 4-2 win over Sevenoaks and a 3-0 victory over Slough, meant that scoring 13 goals hasn't been unlucky for them so far. Rebecca van Arrowsmith is Buckingham's top scorer with five goals, supported by Caroline Spence who has scored three.
Surbiton also scored 13 goals with Steph Elliott leading the way with five goals; Lilie Lamacraft on three; Holly Payne on two and Emily Guckian, Alice Sharp and Alice Wills all scoring once.
Buckingham have beaten Surbiton 7-5 in the 2020 Premier Division and 3-2 in Division One in 2018, but first met in the South Indoor qualifier in 2010, when Clarissa Schilling scored the only goal for Surbiton to win 1-0. Unfortunately the South Indoor Final was cancelled but Surbiton met Buckingham in the 2011 South final and won 3-2 to qualify for EH Division 2, in which they eventually won promotion to Division 1 behind Horsham. Jemma Norton, Sian Craze and Izzy Garrard were Surbiton's goalscorers as Buckingham played the entire tournament with a Kicking Back as they couldn't find a goalkeeper to play for them. How things have changed!
Surbiton face Leicester in their final game on Saturday at 5.30 pm. Leicester lost all four games over the first weekend: 7-1 v Slough; 4-3 v Buckingham; 6-2 to Bowdon and 4-2 to East Grinstead. Lauren Turner scored five of Leicester's eight goals as they look destined to battle relegation with both Sutton Coldfield and Sevenoaks.
On Sunday at 1 pm, Surbiton face Bowdon in what could prove to be a definitive game in their quest to reach Finals Day. Surbiton were thrashed 11-3 in the Premier Division in 2015-16, but drew 2-2 in 2020. Bowdon's Sally Walton is the division's top scorer with twelve goals at the halfway stage, and scored twice in both of the previous meetings. In 2023, Bowdon beat Buckingham 4-2; Sevenoaks 12-3; Leicester 6-2 but lost 8-1 to Repton in their final game of the first weekend.
Surbiton finish against Slough at 4 pm on Sunday. The teams drew 5-5 in 2015-16, but Slough won 6-1 in 2020. Slough start the weekend in sixth place, six points above the bottom three teams. Slough beat Leicester 7-1 and Sutton Coldfield 3-2, but lost 2-1 to East Grinstead and 3-0 to Buckingham. Harriet Ward and Sarah Parkinson-Mills are joint leading goalscorers for Slough having scored four goals apiece of the Berkshire club's eleven goal tally.
The Premier Division can be followed in real time by visiting the England Hockey Altius website via this link
There will also be goal updates via the Surbiton HC Twitter account.