East Grinstead Too Strong for W1 At Super 6s

Surbiton Women emulated the club's Men's team by reaching the final on their Super 6s Finals Day debut before finding East Grinstead's experience too much to overcome.

Surbiton Men had beaten Loughborough Students in the 2010 semi-final at the TrentFM Arena in Nottingham before they lost 9-5 to East Grinstead in the final. Surbiton Women defeated Buckingham 4-1 in the first semi-final at Derby Arena before East Grinstead won the Super 6s title for the fourth time with a 6-1 victory, the last two goals scored whilst Surbiton fielded six outfield players.

The 2010 event had been the last event to be held outside London before the Wembley Arena and the Copper Box Arena became the venues from 2011 to 2023, apart from 2021 when the competition was not held due to Covid-19.

Surbiton faced a tough task in the last four against Buckingham, who were aiming to go one better than 2023 when they lost to Repton in the final and had gone unbeaten on their way to finishing top of the Premier Division qualifiers.

However, Buckingham suffered a blow when key player, Sally Walton suffered an injury the day before and although she was named in Buckingham's starting line-up, she was unable to complete the match.

Surbiton were awarded a third minute penalty stroke after forcing a couple of penalty corners, but Buckingham goalkeeper, Nicole Marks saved Josie Hippe's shot to keep the game scoreless.

Hippe was not to be denied, putting Surbiton ahead in the seventh minute, with Holly Payne converting penalty corners in the 12th and 19th minutes to put the debutants 3-0 ahead of half time and leave Buckingham reeling.

Steph Elliott added a fourth goal in the 33rd minute from open play and although Alex Naughalty scored what turned out to be a consolation goal for Buckingham, it was Surbiton who qualified for the final by reversing the 2-0 loss in the Premier Division qualifier.

The formbook also went out the window in the second semi-final as Slough, who had qualified in second, also with an unbeaten record, lost 3-2 to third placed East Grinstead, the teams having fought out a 2-2 draw in the Premier Division.

East Grinstead led 2-0 through Biba Mills and Anna Faulstich before Jordan Homann pulled a goal back for Slough. Chloe Brown restored East Grinstead's two goal advantage before Homann scored her second goal of the match with six minutes remaining, but Slough couldn't find an equaliser.

Surbiton goalkeeper, Laura Myers therefore faced her former club in the final, having started for East Grinstead in their 4-3 semi-final loss to Buckingham in 2023 and therefore getting a form of revenge. Myers had also been in goal when East Grinstead had last lifted the trophy in 2022 with a 4-3 victory over Repton.

Surbiton captain Elliott had also been Myers' captain in the 2018 tournament, 4-3 once more proving to be an unlucky scoreline as Bowdon beat Holcombe 4-3 on their way to winning the final 2-1 over Leicester.

In 2024, Myers and Elliott had to settle for silver against the West Sussex club. At Repton, the Premier Division meeting had ended 2-1 to East Grinstead, but at the Derby Arena, that was the score at the end of the first quarter. 

Ruth Gordon gave Surbiton a fifth minute lead, only for Lauren Workman to immediately equalise, both goals coming from open play. Amy Thompson put East Grinstead ahead for the first time in the ninth minute from a penalty corner conversion but the game started to run away from Surbiton in the 12th minute. Elliott, who had been unlucky to strike the crossbar was penalised with a yellow card and East Grinstead were awarded a penalty stroke which  Mills. who had also scored at Repton, put away to leave Surbiton trailing 3-1 at half time.

Surbiton continued to battle in the third quarter, but the fourth quarter proved decisive as  Brown, the other East Grinstead scorer at Repton added a fourth goal from a penalty corner in the 34th minute.

Faced with a 4-1 deficit, Surbiton elected to replace Myers with a sixth outfield player with under four minutes to play and East Grinstead took full advantage, Mills and Thompson scoring further goals in the 38th and 40th minutes to end Surbiton's defensive resistance, but also to make the scoreline look false, considering that for three quarters, Surbiton had put in an immense defensive effort to make East Grinstead work hard for the win. 

In spite of the Final defeat, Surbiton women should be very proud of their performance, considering that before their fifth place finish in 2023, Surbiton had been relegated back to Division One following promotion to the Premier Division and to reach the final on their first appearance is an experience that can be built upon in the future.

More information about the Super 6s Women's Finals Day can be found at the England Hockey Altius website here

Old Georgians became Super 6s Men's Champions for the first time when they beat the reigning champions, Wimbledon 6-4 in the final.

Old Georgians beat Hampstead & Westminster 5-3 in the first semi-final. James Carson gave Old Georgians the lead, but Hampstead led 2-1 thanks to goals from James Sutcliffe and Sam Apoola. The momentum swung back towards Old Georgians with Alan Forsyth scoring twice before Chris Griffiths and Edward Carson put Old Georgians 5-2 up. George Carson scored Hampstead's third goal two minutes from time.

Wimbledon reached the final in style with an 8-2 win over Sevenoaks. Wimbledon led 3-1 at half time, Rory Patterson, Evan Kimber and Sam Hooper giving them a 3-0 lead before David Smith replied for the Kent club on the stroke of half time.

Ed Horler and Rhys Bradshaw extended Wimbledon's lead to 5-1 before Joe Naughalty scored Sevenoaks's second goal. Aki Kaeppeler, Kimber and Ben Fox sealed the emphatic victory with goals in the fourth quarter.

In the final, Wimbledon led three times before Old Georgians took control in the last ten minutes. James Carson cancelled out goals from Jack Turner and Kaeppeler before Tom Carson levelled at 3-3 after Patterson had given Wimbledon a 3-2 advantage. 

James Carson completed his hat-trick to put Old Georgians ahead for the first time, only for Turner to equalise for Wimbledon with just six minutes left.

Tom Carson and Edward Carson ensured that Old Georgians would celebrate their maiden indoor title with goals in the 39th and 40th minutes to complete the 6-4 win.

Wimbledon will travel to Vienna in Austria to take part in the Men's EuroHockey Indoor Cup from 15-18 February 2024 and Buckingham will compete in the Women's EuroHockey Indoor Cup in Alanya, Turkey from 22-25 February 2024.