W1 Start League Campaign At Clifton Robinsons On Sat.
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Women begin their defence of the Women's Hockey League Championship when they travel to Bristol on Saturday to take on Clifton Robinsons in a Premier Division clash.
The match will be played at Clifton College, Abbot's Leigh Road, Bristol BS8 3QD and push back will be at 12.15 pm.
Although Clifton Robinsons started playing at Clifton College last season, this will be Surbiton's first match at the venue as both meetings with Clifton last season were at Sugden Road with Surbiton winning 4-1 twice.
Incredibly, although the teams have met every season since Surbiton first played in the top-flight in 2012-13 with the exception of the truncated 2020-21 season, Clifton have only beaten Surbiton once in 23 matches, 1-0 at Surbiton in March 2020 when Kathryn Lane scored the only goal.
Surbiton's final visit to Coombe Dingle was was in February 2023 when goals from Meg Dowthwaite and Giselle Ansley, who recently announced her retirement from international hockey, earned a 2-1 win.
This will be the third time that the teams have met on opening day and both matches were drawn: 1-1 at Surbiton in 2013-14 and 2-2 in 2021-22 at Coombe Dingle.
Surbiton will be hoping for a better start than last season when they lost for the first time on opening day in the Women's Hockey League, losing 3-2 at Reading. The last team to lose their opening match but go on to win the league championship, ironically was Reading who were champions in 2012-13 having started with a 4-0 defeat at Surbiton.
Surbiton's summer signings included New Zealand international Liz Thompson; the University of Nottingham's top scorer last season, Jordan Homann who finished with nine goals and Ellie Mackenzie who struck twice for Loughborough Students in 2023-24.
Clifton Robinsons qualified for last season's League Finals pool stage after finishing eighth (second in the Lower Six) and will be aiming to finish in the Top Six in 2024-25.
Elsewhere on the first day of the season, Sutton Coldfield will start in 2024 where they finished in 2014 when they last played in the Premier Division, at the University of Birmingham. Birmingham won 2-1 on the last day of the Premier Division season.
Sutton were ultimately relegated via the 2013-14 Promotion Tournament and were replaced by Buckingham and Holcombe, who return to the top-flight after one season away and welcome Wimbledon to Holcombe Park.
Bowdon travel to the University of Nottingham; Loughborough Students host Reading and Hampstead & Westminster visit East Grinstead, having ended the West Sussex club's hopes of retaining their league title last April at the semi-final stage at Surbiton HC.
Surbiton Women 2s also have a title to defend as they travel to Harleston Magpies (push back 1430) in their opening match of the Division One South campaign. Surbiton 2s won the league by four points from Holcombe, but the Kent club were promoted because only one team per club can compete in a division and second teams are not permitted in the Premier Division.