W1 Home To Loughborough On Saturday Evening
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Women take on Loughborough Students at Sugden Road on Saturday evening when their Women's Hockey League Premier Division match starts at 1700.
Supporters unable to attend at Sugden Road can watch the stream via the Surbiton Hockey Club channel on You Tube here
With the lower divisions having a week's break due to half term, the focus is on the Premier Division and Surbiton aiming to get back to winning ways after only earning one point out of six in last weekend's doubleheader after losing 2-0 at home to Hampstead & Westminster on Saturday and drawing 4-4 at Reading on Sunday.
Surbiton are fourth going into the second half of Phase 1, six points behind leaders Reading. Loughborough Students are tenth, above Clifton Robinsons on goal difference with both teams on five points.
Loughborough spent one season in the Premier Division in 2000-01 before returning to the top-flight for the 2019-20 season. Since then, Surbiton have only hosted Loughborough once, winning 4-2 in November 2021, when two current members of the Surbiton squad scored, Meg Dowthwaite and Darcy Bourne, with the other two goals scored by Georgie Twigg and Sarah Evans.
The other four meetings have all been at Loughborough University with Surbiton winning three: 3-2 in 2019-20; 5-0 in 2022-23 and 4-1 last season. The meeting in the truncated 2020-21 season ended goalless.
Loughborough started the 2024-25 season with a 2-1 home defeat to Reading before a 1-1 draw at Wimbledon. Their only win so far came at Sutton Coldfield where they won 5-3, but after losing 5-1 at home to Hampstead and 3-2 at Clifton Robinsons, Loughborough drew 3-3 in the East Midlands university derby at the University of Nottingham.
Sam McCrory, Kirsten Oudshoorn, Liv Breed and Madeleine Goodman have all scored twice this season, with former Surbiton player Jess Dyson, Becca Malyon, Hollie Dring-Richardson, Beth Alexander and Catherine Reid all netting once.
Darcy Bourne and Issy Yonge are Surbiton's joint top scorers this season on three with Jordan Homann, Ellie Mackenzie and Martha Taylor all on two. Dowthwaite, Sophie Hamilton and Erica Sanders have each scored once.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Reading head to Wimbledon; second-placed Hampstead travel to Clifton Robinsons; third-placed East Grinstead welcome Bowdon to West Sussex and the University of Birmingham go across the Midlands to the University of Nottingham. Sutton Coldfield, still looking for their first point on their return to the Premier Division for the first time since 2014 are at home to Holcombe, who have lost their last four matches.