M1 Home To Wimbledon On Saturday Evening
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men welcome Wimbledon to Sugden Road on Saturday evening for their final Men's Hockey League Finals Pool B match (push back 1800).
Surbiton and Wimbledon have both qualified for the League Finals semi-finals and are playing to determine which team will finish top of Pool B.
As this is the final weekend, all matches will start at 1800.
The match can be watched online via the Surbiton Hockey Club channel on You Tube here
Wimbledon go into the match a point ahead of Surbiton after winning both matches beating Southgate 7-3 and Oxted 1-0, whilst Surbiton beat Oxted 8-1 before drawing 2-2 with Southgate and winning the shootout 4-1 for the extra point to take their tally to five points.
In Pool A Old Georgians are top on six points with Holcombe and Hampstead & Westminster on three with Beeston having lost both their matches.
Holcombe visit Old Georgians in a repeat of last year's final and need a win to qualify. Hampstead & Westminster's 1-0 victory at Holcombe could be decisive in determining who qualifies, with Hampstead hosting Beeston on Saturday night.
Surbiton and Wimbledon met twice in last season's League Finals competition, drawing 4-4 in the corresponding fixture in Pool B before Surbiton won the shootout to secure an extra point.
The teams then met a week later in the third-place playoff, Surbiton winning 4-2 to secure the third-place finish.
This season, Surbiton won 1-0 in October, but Wimbledon won the return fixture 4-2 in March.
Wimbledon haven't won at Sugden Road since 15 March 2020 when Surbiton lost 3-1. After Wimbledon won promotion from the Conference East via the Promotion Tournament in 2012-13, Wimbledon dominated Premier Division meetings, with Surbiton not winning at home until September 2018 when Surbiton won 3-1, before momentum went with Surbiton, especially at Wimbledon, where Surbiton were unbeaten on six successive visits before Wimbledon won in March.
Which team will be relegated to Division One with the University of Nottingham will be decided on Saturday night as either Cardiff & Met or Reading will go down. Cardiff & Met just need a point at home to East Grinstead to retain their top-flight status in their first season at that level. If Cardiff lose, then Reading will need to win their first home game this season against the University of Nottingham and overturn an eleven goal inferior goal difference.
The relegated teams will be replaced by Bowdon, who are Division One North champions and will return to the top flight for the first time since 2011-12 and Richmond, who will make their Premier Division debut in 2024-25.