Team Surrey Men’s Hockey 1st XI exceeded all expectations this season by sealing the league and cup double following their success in the BUCS South Eastern Conference Cup last month.
They defeated Kings College Men’s 2nd XI in the final at Surrey Sports Park to lift the trophy after they had already won the league by winning nine of their ten matches during a brilliant campaign.
Here’s the full story from the Hockey club…
“This year the University of Surrey Hockey Men’s 1st XI had an unimaginably successful season. At the end of last year, the men’s section of the club was looking scarce of players due to more than half the team graduating and those going on placement. By successfully assisting to promote hockey as a whole at Fresher’s Fair, we welcomed 5 new freshers and 4 returners into the 1st team squad.
We welcomed in a new coach and bonded as a squad to overcome the fact no one had ever played together. Before the tough feat and near impossible challenge of winning the league commenced, we used a challenging preseason against sides in the leagues above us to get us ready for what was ahead. The season got underway with an inspiring win against university varsity rivals Royal Holloway. This win set the tone of the season ahead and propelled us on for the rest of the year with wins such as an 18-0 victory away against Portsmouth, 12-1 win against Royal Holloway at home and the biggest result we recorded 19-0 vs Essex.
The Mens 1st team proved to be immensely successful all through-out the entire league season scoring 107 goals and only conceding 10. This gave us the best goal difference in the league by over 30 goals, averaging 10.7 goals scored a game, as well as keeping clean sheets in the majority of the games we played. We won all but 1 league game obtaining 27/30 points. Winning the league was massive for the team after finding ourselves in a new league. It means promotion for next season which will encourage team spirit and morale, which is something that will be passed on to those coming in next year.
The Mens 1s also out did themselves in the cup and brought home a domestic double (league and cup). Our biggest result in this competition came against the first opposition we played – Kings College, 8-0 was the half time score before the opposition honourably forfeited the reminder of the game at half time. To show our sportsmanship and save them a wasted journey we mixed our team with theirs to play out the remainder of the game in a friendly fashion. The win in this first game sparked hope that we could win the whole competition. It was carried with us all throughout the competition. The next two fixtures in the run to the final proved to be some of the toughest games of the year with a 3-2 result against St Mary’s and a 4-2 victory over Brighton. The final took place under the floodlights here at SSP, a nervy first 5 minutes from both sides quickly got the sideline riled up and behind us. We found our feet and settled into the game well to have a strong 2-0 lead at half time. The hard work and determination of the squad this season meant momentum was carried into the second half and the game was put to bed with a comfortable 6-0 win.
BUCS fixtures are not the only place the Hockey Men’s 1st XI team were triumphant this year, we along with the rest of the university welcomed varsity rivals Royal Holloway, The Men’s 1st XI followed up their league double over Holloway with an 8-0 win, marking a major improvement on last year’s 3-0 varsity win. Two of these goals coming from graduating students Lucas Reay and Ben Pugh-Cook who had been promoted from the 2nd XI.
Men’s 1st XI Captain Toby Martin said: “We set out the season with the goal of bringing home some silverware and to have completed the double shows just how hard all the boys have worked this year. It was thoroughly deserved and something we will be proud to carry with us long into the future.”
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