W1 Head To Durham On Saturday
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Women make the long trip to Durham to face a Durham University team on the cusp of qualifying for the Top Six in their maiden season in the Women's Hockey League Premier Division.
Surbiton will likely need to win to make sure of finishing Stage One in first place, although Hampstead & Westminster, the only team that can overtake them, go into a home game with reigning champions, Reading, a point in arrears.
As this is the last round of matches in the top flight in 2025, all six matches start at 1400.
Durham University started the season with two victories, 2-1 at home to Clifton Robinsons and 7-1 at home to the University of Nottingham.
Durham then lost five games in a row, 3-2 at Bowdon and 3-1 at East Grinstead; 1-0 at home to Wimbledon, 4-1 at Hampstead & Westminster and 2-0 at Reading.
At that point, Durham were ninth, but a run of three successive victories has put them in pole position to clinch a Top Six place, with a superior goal difference over potential rivals, the University of Birmingham and Loughborough Students.
Barnes were beaten 6-2 at Maiden Castle with Durham securing their first away wins: 3-1 at the University of Birmingham and a convincing 5-0 win at Loughborough Students last weekend.
Birmingham will need to beat East Grinstead and Loughborough will need to win at Bowdon by large margins and hope that Surbiton continue their devastating goalscoring form in Durham.
Lizzy Pocknell scored 16 goals in Division One North in 2024-25 as Durham won 17 of 18 games to win promotion to the Premier Division by three points from Beeston and Pocknell has not been fazed by the higher standards of competition in the top tier, netting nine times to help Durham make their mark at the highest level.
Ava Findlay has scored five goals with Lorna Crawford scoring three goals. Katie Birch and Helena Youmans have both found the net twice and Rebecca Birch, Eva-Rose Ferguson, Emmie Gilbert, Amelie Hales, Scarlet Spavin and Evelyn Wilson have each scored once to give Durham some strength in depth in goalscoring options.
As for Surbiton, Sabbie Heesh is set to return to the visitors' goal after making her home return last week, keeping a clean sheet in the 6-0 victory over the University of Birmingham.
Darcy Bourne goes into the fixture as the Premier Division's leading goalscorer on 12 goals and with Erica Sanders on eight and Amy Costello on six goals amongst the top six divisional goalscorers, Surbiton, as in recent weeks have plenty of goalscoring potential to test the newly promoted students.
At the bottom of the table, Barnes, who slipped to the basement last weekend welcome Clifton Robinsons to Dukes Meadow in an attempt to avoid going into Stage 2 in last place, and the University of Nottingham will be looking for that result as a Barnes win or draw and a Nottingham defeat at home to Wimbledon would see the East Midlands students end 2025 at the bottom of the table as the third team to occupy that position in as many weeks.