Surbiton Hockey Club

Surbiton Hockey Club is a professional field hockey club based in Long Ditton, Surrey, England. The club is one of the oldest hockey clubs in the world, being established in 1874. The home ground is based in Long Ditton, at Sugden Road.[1] The club is currently the leading club in England with the women's team winning the league for eight years in succession [2][3] and the men's team winning the three of the last four league titles.[4][5]

Surbiton Hockey Club
Full nameSurbiton Hockey Club
Founded1874 (1874)
Home groundSugden Road, Long Ditton
ChairmanAndy Powdrell
LeagueMen's England Hockey League
Women's England Hockey League
Websitehttps://surbitonhc.com/
Home

The Men's 1st Team play in the Men's England Hockey League and the Ladies 1st Team play in the Women's England Hockey League. The club fields twelve men's sides, including one veterans and one super-vets team, as well as eight ladies sides and also youth sides.[6][7]

The men's 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th teams play in divisions of the Higgins Group London Hockey League, while the 'Jokers' and 'Magnets' sides play in the veterans section of this league. The 4As play in the Surrey Area Division 2 of the South Hockey League. The 6th, 7th, 8th teams and the 'Sparticans' play in the Surrey Open Hockey League. The ladies' 2nd and 3rd teams play in the South Clubs' Women's Hockey League while the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th teams play in the Surrey Ladies Hockey League. The boys and girls teams (U-11 up to U-18) play in the Mercian Home Counties Colts Hockey League.

Formative years

Founded in 1874, Surbiton is the second oldest hockey club in the world. Surbiton has continuously played the modern game of hockey excluding the duration of World War I and World War II. The first competitive match was played on 3 February 1875 against Teddington in Bushy Park, winning by two goals to one and the club remained unbeaten until 26 January 1878.

Post-war years

Surbiton was the first winner of the London League in 1970. In the 1970s however, the club's fortunes declined and the Club management embarked on a major youth training and club development programme. The first of the "home grown" players came into the 1st Xl in 1984 and started the turnaround in the club's on-pitch fortunes by winning the Surrey Cup in 1986 and finishing 6th in the London League.

The club did not make it into the National League when it started (in 1988), but Surbiton went on to win the London League in 1990 and again in 1991, thereby gaining entry to the 2nd Division of the National League. Immediate promotion to the 1st Division (then the top division) was gained by winning the 2nd Division, but was followed disappointingly by relegation in 1993. Over the next four seasons, promotion was again followed by relegation, before the Club cemented its place among the elite in the Premier Division in 1999.

In 2001, Surbiton finished 2nd in the Premier Division and won the Premier Division playoffs. As a result, they were one of England's representatives in the European Club Championship in Antwerp in 2002. They lost the bronze medal match to Egara, the Spanish representatives. In 2002, Surbiton finished 2nd again in the Premier Division, but lost the Premier play-offs final to Reading 3–2. As a result, they represented England in the European Cup Winners Cup in Spain in 2003. Surbiton's first European medal came upon beating the Polish representatives in a tight game to earn the bronze. In 2003, Surbiton finished 3rd in the Premier Division, but lost their first game in the play-offs to Loughborough Students, immediately after returning from Spain.

The 2012/13 season began with a poor run of results that saw Surbiton rooted to the bottom of the National Premier League. With the shock transfer of captain Tim Deakin to struggling rivals East Grinstead during the winter break, Surbiton faced the unenviable task of rebuilding their season without their talismanic defender. However, new coach Todd Williams and his relatively young squad turned their fortunes round to finish the season in second place, qualifying for the play-offs and beating already-crowned champions Beeston 6-1 along the way. This victory was not to be the high point of the season, as the squad then qualified for the EuroHockey League for the first time in their history by beating Canterbury 5–2 in the play-off semi-final. They will also go into the 2013/-14 season as NOW: Pensions Men's Cup holders, after a 3–1 win over Hampstead and Westminster in the 2012–13 final at Wakefield Hockey Club.

Surbiton Ladies have, since 2004/-05, risen from the Surrey Ladies League Premier Division, up to the Investec Women's Hockey League Premier Division. Having been relegated from the South Clubs' Women's Hockey League Division Two to the Surrey League in 2003/-04, Surbiton Ladies discovered that on their return to the regional league, the South League had added a third division, split into two regions (3A and 3B). Far from daunted, Surbiton Ladies won Division 3B at the first attempt; and after finishing fourth, then second, in their first two seasons in Division 2; won promotion to Division 1 in 2008/-09. At the end of the 2009/-10 season, Surbiton Ladies had won promotion to the Women's England Hockey League for the first time in their history, after their second successive championship triumph, finishing top of SCWHL Division 1. In 2010/-11, Surbiton Ladies finished as runners-up to Sevenoaks in the newly sponsored Investec Women's Hockey League Conference East; and then in 2011/12 Surbiton won the Conference East, and then finished second in the Investec Promotion Tournament, to ensure that they would play in the Investec Women's Hockey League Premier Division in 2012/-13. In addition, Surbiton Ladies have played in two successive Investec Women's Cup finals whilst in the Conference East, losing 4–1 to Premier Division opposition on both occasions (Bowdon Hightown in 2010–11; and the University of Birmingham in 2011–12).

Location

Surbiton's current home ground constitutes one water-based and one sand-based Edel Grass pitch. The old second (sand-based) pitch (referred to by some club members as "The Beach") was replaced by the second water-based pitch as part of the club's re-development over summer 2013. The preceding months had seen a total of £1 million raised, including grants from Sport England as well as SHC's own fundraising initiatives - under the banner "Bye Bye To The Beach".

Further club refurbishment over the summer also included an expanded kitchen facility and an increase in the number of changing rooms and toilets. Surbiton's original home ground was on Balaclava Road but moved to Sugden Road in 1908, to make way for the Seething Wells water works. The current pavilion building was first erected in 1986, with the first artificial pitch being installed in 1991 - the second pitch was added in 1995.

Colours and crest

The club colours are white, green and magenta. This is embodied on the club shirt which is predominantly white with a single magenta strip across the chest and a single dark green strip directly underneath. The club's crest is on the two stripes in white on the left breast, while the kit sponsor is on the right. The current shirt sponsor (as of October 2013) is BT Sport. This shirt is worn with dark blue shorts/skorts and dark green socks with white trim, and thin white/magenta hoops. The current shorts sponsor (as of October 2013) is Weybridge based specialist gym (Locker 27), which the Men's 1st XI occasionally use for strength and conditioning training.

The Men's 1st XI's away strip consists of a black shirt worn with white shorts and magenta socks. The rest of the club continues to wear the more renowned dark green shirt of previous seasons. This shirt has magenta and white stripes in similar fashion to the home shirt (the white stripe replaces the green stripe). This is also worn with dark blue shorts/skorts but with all-white socks.

The club crest is a very simple design bearing the 'SHC' abbreviation of the club's name, with 'Surbiton 1874' underneath.

Legacy

Surbiton was originally involved in many of the developments which mark out hockey as a different pitch game from any other – the striking circle, two umpires, and stopping the ball before a penalty corner shot, for example. The club was also instrumental in taking hockey to schools and universities during the latter part of the 19th century, whilst International and Divisional matches were also played on its original ground at Balaclava Road in Surbiton.

The club was a founder member of the Hockey Association in 1886 and is currently one of three Surrey-based clubs playing in the National League (the others being Guildford and Oxted). The block fixture system, whereby on the same day every team in the club played the equal level team in another club, provided the solid foundation on which hockey thrived right up to the starting of the leagues in the late 1960s. The 600-strong Colts' section now provides the opportunity for talented young players to progress to county, divisional and national age group representative sides, as well as to the top sides in the Club itself. Several players have made this progression and some are current first team members. One player, Brett Garrard, began his hockey career at Surbiton and went on to become Great Britain and England's most capped player of all time. He now coaches the Surbiton ladies 1st XI.

Surbiton has always been a well-travelled touring club, with their infamous Strollers starting the Easter touring tradition in 1928. The Keeper of the Banana and associated rituals continue into the 21st Century and such is the size of the club that this has given birth to other touring sides, the most notable including the Lastminute Crusaders and Pirates of Kazakhstan.

Players

Men's First Team Squad 2021–22 season

No. Pos. Nation Player
3 DF  ENG Luke Taylor
4 MF  ENG Rob Farrington
5 MF  ENG Tom Sorsby
6 FW  ENG Ben Boon
7 DF  ENG Jonny Gall (Captain)
8 DF  ENG Tim Nurse
9 FW  ENG Arjan Drayton Chana
10 FW  SCO Jamie Golden
11 MF  ENG Jonty Griffiths
12 MF  ENG Ben Park
13 FW  ENG Scott Evans
14  ENG Tom Fox
16  ENG Ben Stevenson
17  ENG Dylan Parry
18  SCO Matthew Hughson
19 MF  ENG David Goodfield
20 MF  ENG Nick Park
No. Pos. Nation Player
21  ENG Adam Buckle
22 FW  ENG Alex Williams
23 GK  ENG Harry Gibson
24 MF  ENG Sam Spencer
26 MF  ENG James Gall
27 FW  ENG Dan Hunt
28 DF  WAL Gareth Furlong
29 GK  ENG Alex Rooney
30 GK  ENG Ore Ogunlana
31 FW  ENG Casper Bayer
32  ENG Jamie Taylor
34  ENG Jake Thompson
35 GK  ENG Adam Wilkinson
36 MF  ENG Jack Middleton
37  ENG Tobias Chan
38 GK  ENG Josh Grigg

Ladies First Team Squad 2021–22 season

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  ENG Sabbie Heesh
2 DF  ENG Elani Sherwood
3 MF  ENG Charlotte Daly
4 DF  ENG Lottie Ross
5 FW  ENG Darcy Bourne
6 DF  ENG Alice Wills
7 MF  ENG Sarah Evans (Captain)
8 MF  ENG Georgie Twigg (Vice-captain)
9 FW  ENG Meg Dowthwaite
10 FW  ENG Taz Cookman
11 MF  ENG Holly Payne
12 MF  ENG Sophie Hamilton
13 MF  ENG Eloise Stenner
14 DF  ENG Steph Elliott
No. Pos. Nation Player
15 GK  ENG Louisa Bray
16 MF  ENG Emily Defroand
17 DF  WAL Leah Wilkinson
22 FW  ENG Maddie Long
23 MF  ENG Alice Sharp
24 MF  ENG Martha Le Huray
25 DF  ENG Freya Bull
26 DF  SCO Robyn Collins
27 MF  ENG Pippi Spawforth
28 GK  ENG Tess Shahbo
29 GK  ENG Delphine Ayitey-Hammond
30 DF  ENG Ellie De Heer
32 MF  ENG Jenny O'Grady
33  ENG Gemma Townsend

Honours

Men's

Women's

Notable players

Men's internationals

 England
 Gibraltar
  • Karl Stagno
 Scotland
 Ireland
 South Africa

Women's internationals

 England
 Scotland
 Australia
 New Zealand

References

  1. "Surbiton Hockey Club". Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  2. "M1 & L1 Champions, L2 Promoted". Surbiton Hockey Club.
  3. "Club Round Up: 2nd & 3rd April 2022". Surbiton HC. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  4. "Report". Surbiton Hockey Club.
  5. "Report". Surbiton Hockey Club.
  6. "EHL Men's league tables". Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  7. "WHL Women's league tables". Retrieved 8 December 2014.
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