Review of the Premier Division Week Five

The Men's Premier Division table is taking shape after this weekend’s double header games takes us past the halfway point of the first stage of the league.

Champions Old Georgians are the only team with a 100% record and have opened up a five point advantage at the top of the table. They were made to work hard for the points on Saturday, overcoming Beeston to win 3-2, the only time they have scored fewer than five goals in a game, but had an emphatic 9-2 win at Oxted on Sunday where they led 7-2 at the break.

Surbiton and Holcombe are level on points in second, although the former have a game in hand, and they drew 4-4 on Saturday at Holcombe with Luke Taylor’s last-minute conversion of a second corner earning a share of the spoils for Surbiton. Both followed this up with wins on Sunday. Teague Marcano netted a hat-trick in Holcombe’s 4-2 win at East Grinstead and Struan Walker & Will Haspel a brace each in their 5-2 defeat of Beeston. Beeston last beat Surbiton in November 2018, however Henry Croft did score, as he did on Saturday, to keep up his record of scoring in every game to date this season.

Wimbledon are fourth and picked up six points over the weekend with narrow wins against East Grinstead, 3-2 and Hampstead & Westminster 2-1. Hampstead are yet to win at home this season but maintained their 100% away record on Saturday, winning 5-2 with Matt Guise-Brown scoring three.

Ioan Wall also hit a hat-trick on Saturday for Cardiff & Met in a 3-2 win at Oxted. They too made it a six-point weekend at they beat Richmond 7-0 on Sunday, their first ever Premier Division home win, all their goals coming in the second half. This brought Richmond back down with a bump after they picked up their first Premier Division points the day before in a 3-1 win against Bowdon in the battle of the promoted teams. Bowdon returned empty-handed from their London weekend as they lost 4-3 at Southgate on Sunday where Archie Foster’s hat-trick earned the home team’s first points of the campaign; Bowdon now the only team without a point.

We will have a round-up of the other EHL Divisions to come, the Goals of the Week clips for both days will be out on Wednesday and the EHL Premier Preview podcast, looking ahead to next Saturday’s games lands on Thursday evening. Also see our new league web pages here.

Top Scorers:

Sam Ward (Old Georgians) 10

Struan Walker (Surbiton) 9

Alan Forsyth (Old Georgians) 8

Matt Guise-Brown (Hampstead & Westminster) 8

Henry Croft (Beeston) 7

Teague Marcano (Holcombe) 7

Tom Carson (Old Georgians) 7

Clean Sheets:

James Mazarelo (Surbiton) 1

Ore Ogunlana (Wimbledon) 1

Mark Philpot (Cardiff & Met) 1

Toby Reynolds-Cotterill (Hampstead & Westminster) 1

The first stage of the Women's Premier Division season is now past the halfway mark after a tight weekend of hockey saw only two teams fail to pick up any points.

Reading retain top spot but lost their 100% record with both games hinging on late goals. On Saturday they trailed 2-0 at Holcombe after two early Olivia Shannon goals but fought back to win 3-2 thanks to Anna Crowley’s 69th minute winner. On Sunday they took a two goal lead, both from Lorna Mackenzie, and never trailed Surbiton but were ultimately pegged back to 4-4 by Darcy Bourne’s 61st minute equaliser. This came four minutes after Nicki Cochrane had saved a Bourne stroke. 24 hours earlier Surbiton had lost 2-0 to Hampstead & Westminster on Saturday and a point for Hampstead on Sunday in a 1-1 draw with Wimbledon puts them in second place, three points behind Reading.

East Grinstead are level on points with Hampstead. They drew 1-1 with Wimbledon on Saturday and inflicted a second defeat of the weekend on Holcombe the following day with Amy Thompson’s 60th minute corner the only goal of the game.

It was a good weekend for Clifton Robinsons who whilst 11th in the table extended their unbeaten run to three games after starting the campaign with three successive losses. On Saturday they came from two down to beat Loughborough Students 3-2 thanks to a 69th minute corner from Zoe Cullum. They followed this up with a 1-1 draw against Birmingham University the following day. Birmingham also took four points from the weekend having held off a late charge at Bowdon to win 4-3 with Lily Sokhi scoring twice.

Maddie Axford cemented her place at the top of the scoring charts with a hat- trick in Nottingham University’s 6-1 win at Sutton Coldfield on Saturday. However she failed to score in Nottingham’s 3-3 draw at Loughborough Students the day after. Sutton were beaten 2-0 at Bowdon on the Sunday and remain without a point and five points adrift at the foot of the table.

We will have a round-up of the other EHL Divisions to come, the Goals of the Week clips for both days will be out on Wednesday and the EHL Premier Preview podcast, looking ahead to next Saturday’s games lands on Thursday evening. Also see our new league web pages here.

Top Scorers:

Maddie Axford (University of Nottingham) 8

Mia Moore (Reading) 5

Olivia Shannon (Holcombe) 5

Biba Mills (East Grinstead) 4

Lily Sokhi (University of Birmingham) 4

Lorna Mackenzie (Reading) 4

Clean Sheets:

Mila Welch (East Grinstead) 3

Nicola Cochrane (Reading) 2

Miriam Pritchard (Hampstead & Westminster) 2

Amber Walton (Surbiton) 2

Evie Wood (University of Birmingham) 2