B2H: How We Got To Where We Are Today

Since its inception 15 years ago, Back To Hockey has grown into a thriving part of Surbiton HC. But what's the story behind the success?

It was in 1978 that the SHC Juniors (‘Colts’) section was formed by Wendy and Mike Beaney who realised that to expand the club and get good players, we had to “grow our own”; so that is what they did with the first two being their own children, Richard and Chris, who are still playing members of the club. It wasn’t until 31 years later that the club realised that hockey was growing to such an extent in the country that there was a need for returning players, after family life bringing up young children or having been away from hockey for a long while, to start playing again in a development environment rather than launching them straight into the leagues with the new way of playing on astro and new rules. Hence ‘Back To Hockey’ was formed.

“It was in March of the year 2009, that a Back to Hockey group was formed by the foresight of Katherine Adams, a Colts parent at the time. She first contacted Brett Garrard (GB Hockey captain) and with the Club Board Members' support, it was decided that a coach would be provided. The task of ‘making it all happen’ was given to Katherine, Brett and Simon Fitch who all brainstormed on some of the barriers to folk coming Back to Hockey. The first three sessions were free tasters, with each of those following charged at £5. The first ever session was from 10:30am – 11:30am on Tuesday 10th March 2009.” (Simon Fitch)

Since then, there have been a number of B2H Managers, including the likes of Ali Hitch who took it over about 12 years ago with a starting attendance of about eight players, followed by Tarek Abdulla, then Sean Peche with Tracey House who ran it together for about six years taking the numbers up to 30ish. Roger Hitch and Josh Blair have since taken it on, reaching the dizzy heights of 80+ players, with each coach/manager building on the successes of those that went before them.

Josh’s graphic design, advertising skills and tournament organisation contributed greatly to our current on-pitch successes while Roger looked to maximise the administration side of “The Business”. This resulted in doubling of both the attendance figures and the revenue generated by the events that took place last season.

So to the 2024/25 season where we now have a very diverse range of players from around the world: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, South Africa and Spain are all represented, with players from ages 21 to 71 with an average age of 44. There are currently 51 men and 32 women involved. We have a range of experience levels from completely new to hockey to a National Schools U18 Champion (2000s), a South African Divisional player (2010s), an ex SHC M1s player (1980s) and many previous other club league players. 28 parents of SHC juniors have remained members since the start of last season which is 35% of our current membership.

We have many events planned to encourage more members to join in the fun and our competitions and these can be read in next week’s article entitled “B2H – What’s on next part #1”.