W1 Resume Premier Division Season At Hampstead On Saturday
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Women resume their Women's Hockey League Premier Division campaign on Saturday when they visit Hampstead & Westminster in the first match of the Top Six.
Push back at Paddington Recreation Ground will be at 1545, when Surbiton will go into the match with a five point lead over second-placed Reading knowing that finishing top at the end of the Top Six stage will secure as a minimum, the second European place in 2024-25.
The first European place will go to the winners of the League Finals, which will take place at Surbiton over the weekend of 13/14 April.
Hampstead finished the Stage 1 Round-Robin in fourth place, twelve points behind Surbiton, who are currently on a ten game winning streak after losing the season opener 3-2 at Reading.
Surbiton beat Hampstead 3-1 at Sugden Road in October, Hannah French scoring twice with Sophie Hamilton also on target; Hampstead's reply coming from Madi Ratcliffe.
Since Hampstead were promoted to the Premier Division in 2018-19 after qualifying via the Promotion Tournament following on from lifting the Conference East title, Surbiton have only lost once to the Central London club in the top-flight.
Hampstead won 2-0 at Sugden Road in Mar 2022, but Surbiton have won the other three meetings on home soil and have also won all three encounters at Paddington Recreation Ground.
Hampstead battled in the semi-final of last season's League Finals tournament, but Surbiton prevailed 5-3 before losing to East Grinstead in the final.
Ratcliffe's goal at Surbiton was one of the nine goals she scored in the first half of the season, to become Hampstead's top scorer with nine goals. Anna O'Flanagan also proved to be a threat with four goals, supported by Rachel Greenwood and Lily Owsley who have both scored twice.
Esme Burge, Hannah Davey, Amy Elliott, Holly Hunt, Emily Rowlands and Melanie Wilkinson have all found the net once in 2023-24 for Hampstead.
Hampstead's defence has also been an asset this season. After suffering a crushing 5-1 defeat at home to East Grinstead, the defence was tightened to keep three successive clean sheets before conceding a single goal in their last match of 2023, a 1-1 home draw with Bowdon. Hampstead conceded 14 goals in their first 11 matches, only Surbiton able to better that record with a measly nine goals conceded with six conceded in their last ten games.
French is Surbiton's leading goalscorer with ten goals, Leah Wilkinson and Sophie Hamilton in joint second-place with six goals. Martha Taylor has scored five goals, Sarah Evans is on four, with Meg Dowthwaite, Izzy Petter and Giselle Ansley all on two.
Josie Hippe, Steph Elliott and Amy Costello have each scored once to give Surbiton the best scoring record with 40 goals, nine ahead of East Grinstead's 31.
Elsewhere in the Top Six, Reading host third-placed East Grinstead at 1630 and at the same time, the University of Nottingham welcome Bowdon to the East Midlands as fifth takes on sixth.
In the Lower Six, where the top two teams will join the Top Six teams in the League Finals Pools, with third to sixth battling in the relegation playoffs in Stage 3, Beeston have a Midlands derby at home to the University of Birmingham at 1600; Wimbledon travel to Loughborough Students (1400) and Clifton Robinsons face Isca & University of Exeter for only the second time in the National League, in Bristol (1630).