W1 Home To University of Nottingham on Saturday
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Women host the University of Nottingham on Saturday evening as they aim to cement their five point lead in the Women's Hockey League Premier Division.
The game at Sugden Road starts at 1730 and those supporters unable to attend can watch the match via the Surbiton Hockey Club channel on You Tube here
This will be only the third meeting between the teams in the Women's Hockey League because the University of Nottingham were in the old Midlands regional league in 2018-19 before winning promotion at the first attempt from the Conference North in 2019-20.
After the truncated 2020-21 season, the University of Nottingham won Division One North in 2021-22 to make their Premier Division debut in 2022-23. Surbiton won the only meeting between the teams 4-0 in October 2022 and when the teams met earlier this season at Nottingham Hockey Centre, Surbiton won 5-0 thanks to a brace from Hannah French and goals from Leah Wilkinson, Sophie Hamilton and Sarah Evans.
The University of Nottingham qualified for the Top Six for the first time and are two points behind fourth-placed Hampstead & Westminster with three games remaining having lost 3-1 at home to the London club last weekend.
Jordan Homann is the University's top scorer with eight goals with Maddie Axford on five, Maddie Long, Holly Nixon and Julie Read all on three goals. Sienna Dunn has scored twice with Jodie Collins, Eliza Wheeler and Maddie Stewart each having scored once.
And with three goalscorers called Maddie, the University of Nottingham's strength in depth is Truly Maddie Deeply!
Surbiton will want to bounce back after last weekend's 1-0 defeat at East Grinstead which ended an eleven game winning streak since their opening day defeat at Reading. French is currently Surbiton's top scorer with ten goals with Wilkinson on seven and Hamilton on six goals.
The University of Nottingham will want to score their first goal against Surbiton in the Women's Hockey League and build upon the immense progress they have made since promotion from the regional leagues.
Elsewhere in the Top Six, East Grinstead make the long trip to Bowdon hoping to avenge their opening day home defeat (push back 1330) and Reading visit Hampstead & Westminster at 1545.
In the Lower Six where the top two teams qualify for the eight team League Finals, Wimbledon and Clifton Robinsons are in pole position to qualify with three games to play. Wimbledon visit Beeston at 1600, Clifton Robinsons travel to the University of Birmingham for a 1430 start and Isca & University of Exeter welcome Loughborough Students to Devon at 1400.