Both First Teams Heading To Bowdon On Saturday
By Colin Pike
Both Surbiton first teams are heading to Bowdon on Saturday for a doubleheader with Surbiton Women playing at 1630 followed by Surbiton Men at 1830.
Both games are taking place at the Bowdon Club, South Downs Road, Bowdon, Altrincham WA14 3DT.
Surbiton Women were in Altrincham a year ago when they won 7-1 in Phase One of the Women's Hockey League Premier Division season before winning 4-1 at Sugden Road in Phase Two.
Surbiton Men have not played at Bowdon since October 2011, when they won 4-1. Surbiton have won the last eight Premier Division meetings since Bowdon did the league double over Surbiton in their first-ever season in the Men's Hockey League Premier Division in 2007-08.
Bowdon won 2-1 in Altrincham and 3-2 at Sugden Road on their way to a fifth place finish, one place above Surbiton.
Surbiton Women are fourth going into the Bowdon fixture, whilst their hosts have dropped out of the Top Six after suffering successive defeats at East Grinstead (2-4) and Reading (0-2).
Bowdon started the season with two 1-0 defeats at the University of Nottingham and at home to Holcombe before winning 3-1 at Clifton Robinsons and 3-0 at Wimbledon. Bowdon went down 4-3 at home to the University of Birmingham, but won beat Sutton Coldfield 2-0 at home.
Rebecca Birch, Georgia Carroll and Maddie Scullion have all scored twice for Bowdon this season with their other goals scored by Annabel Mills, Aine Curran, Alex Lukin, Lucy Smith, Freya Bellamy, Alia Jacques and Tor Hughes.
Surbiton Women make the long trip to the North West on the back of two successive wins, 3-2 at home to Loughborough Students and 3-1 at Holcombe.
Darcy Bourne is Surbiton's top scorer with five goals, followed by Ellie Mackenzie and Issy Yonge on three. Jordan Homann, Erica Sanders and Martha Taylor are all on two with Meg Dowthwaite, Sophie Hamilton, Lottie Ross and Alice Wills having scored once.
Both first teams found out this week that they will be heading to Den Bosch in the Netherlands for their respective Euro Hockey League competitions at Easter 2025.
Surbiton Men were not quite able to repeat their KO8 heroics over Wimbledon when the local rivals met at Sugden Road on Thursday night, Wimbledon scoring a late equaliser to earn a point in a 2-2 draw, but Surbiton won't underestimate a Bowdon side currently looking for their first point of the season on their return to the Premier Division.
Although Bowdon Men started with heavy defeats at home to Old Georgians (1-6) and at Wimbledon (0-6), they lost 3-1 at East Grinstead before suffering their biggest defeat of the season in an 8-0 loss at home to Hampstead & Westminster.
A 3-1 defeat at Richmond was followed by a narrow 4-3 loss at Southgate. Bowdon Men have lost their last two league games by a 4-1 margin: at home to Holcombe and at Oxted.
Carlos Dolado-Hollyman is Bowdon Men's top scorer with three goals. Their other five goals have been shared between Stephen Halfhead, Robert Creffier, Maks Wyndham-Smith, Ollie Rogerson and Zach Rakkas.
Elsewhere in the Women's Premier Division, Reading visit the University of Nottingham; Hampstead & Westminster host Sutton Coldfield; East Grinstead welcome the University of Birmingham to West Sussex; Clifton Robinsons visit Wimbledon and Loughborough Students are away to Holcombe.
In the Men's Premier Division, Old Georgians travel to Hampstead & Westminster; Holcombe are at home to Oxted; Wimbledon welcome Cardiff & Met to South West London; Beeston are at East Grinstead in the second match of the hosts' doubleheader and Southgate take on Richmond in a battle to avoid occupying the second relegation place.