M1 Face Wimbledon In Rearranged Game Tonight
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men have a rare midweek Men's Hockey League Premier Division match, facing local rivals Wimbledon in a Thursday night clash at Sugden Road (push back 2000).
The original fixture was postponed due to both teams' participation in the Euro Hockey League KO16 tournament at Sugden Road in October, when ironically the teams faced each other in the KO8 stage, Surbiton winning 3-2 to secure qualification to the FINAL8 at Easter 2025.
Supporters unable to attend the match can watch the game via the Surbiton Hockey Club channel on You Tube here
This time the teams meet in domestic competition, with Surbiton hoping to close the gap between themselves and leaders, Old Georgians to two points with three games to play before the mid-season break.
A Wimbledon win would see them join Surbiton and Holcombe on 19 points, probably in fourth with an inferior goal difference compared to the other two teams.
Wimbledon started the season with a 5-3 defeat at Holcombe before running off four successive wins: 6-0 at home to Bowdon; 4-2 at home to Southgate; 3-2 at home to East Grinstead and 2-1 at Hampstead & Westminster.
After surprisingly being held 3-3 at home to Oxted, Wimbledon needed a last minute penalty stroke to get past Beeston 3-2 at Nottingham Hockey Centre on Saturday night.
Sam Hooper, who kept his nerve to earn all three points for Wimbledon in the East Midlands, is Wimbledon's joint top scorer on four goals alongside Ed Horler. Liam Ansell is on three with Jack Turner, Ben Francis, Euan Gilmour and Kaden Draysey all on two.
Even Kimber, Connor Greentree, Sam McCulloch, Fred Newbold and Joe McConnell have all scored once to show that Wimbledon have several goalscoring options to call on.
Meanwhile, Surbiton had to battle past Southgate to join Wimbledon by securing a 3-2 victory to collect all three points on offer last Saturday and stay in contact with Old Georgians.
Old Georgians, Surbiton and Holcombe have all booked their places in the Top Six in Phase 2 and Wimbledon will join them if they are victorious tonight.
Struan Walker is Surbiton's top scorer on 12, with Luke Taylor on five, and Jake Payton and Jake Smith both on four. Ben Park, Will Haspel have both scored three whilst Stuart Rushmere, Rob Farrington and Conor Williamson have been on target twice this season. Tim Nurse and Gareth Furlong have scored once each to show that both teams have attacking options.
Surbiton Men will then travel to Bowdon on Saturday to join Surbiton Women in a double header in Altrincham with the W1 match starting at 1630 and the M1 match at 1830.