Below the Premier Division: Loughborough’s Perfect Start Leads England’s Lower-League Picture
Everyone watches the Premier Division. The best stories in English hockey right now are one floor down.
England Hockey published its round-up of the first five weeks of Division One and Conference hockey on Wednesday, and the men’s picture has a clear headline act: Loughborough Students are five from five in Division One North, the only perfect record in the division, two points clear of the University of Birmingham with Durham University third on ten. Leeds are bottom with a single point, which is a long winter already.
Div 1 South is a scrap
The South is tighter and meaner. Richmond and Teddington are joint top on twelve points, Richmond ahead on goal difference, with Richmond’s Scott Wall already on ten goals for the season. At the other end, Indian Gymkhana and Southgate are still on zero. Five games, no points. That’s not a slow start, that’s a crisis with a fixture list attached.
The Conferences, quickly
London Wayfarers have won all five in Conference East. In the Midlands, Oxford Hawks and City of Peterborough are both perfect on fifteen points, the Hawks top with twenty-three goals scored. Lindum lead Conference North five points clear, also five from five, and in the West Marlow are perfect with Havant unbeaten behind them on thirteen.
The women’s divisions have their own logjams. Exeter University, Surbiton 2s and Southgate are all unbeaten and level on eleven points in Division One South, Exeter top on goal difference at plus thirteen, while Team Bath Buccaneers are still pointless. Leeds and Clifton Robinsons share top spot in the North on twelve. Old Georgians’ women have conceded once in five games to lead Conference East, Cambridge University are perfect in the Midlands, and Oxford University top the West unbeaten.
None of this will trend on social media. It should still matter to anyone who cares where the Premier Division’s next awkward away trip comes from. It comes from Loughborough, on this evidence, and it comes soon. The top flight’s own weekend is previewed in our England Women’s Round 5 piece.
