Surbiton top English indoor league’s regular season as club provide glut of players to GB sides

Surbiton’s men topped the English indoor league’s regular season table in impressive style, winning seven of their eight ties.

Alan Forsyth netted a monster 31 goals along the way, including 23 from play, to power their success.

Having secured two wins last Saturday, the table toppers went into Sunday full of confidence and produced two excellent performances, winning 13-2 against Canterbury before beating Bowdon 14-4 later in the day.

** Surbiton’s men and women will play in the EHL FINAL8; to buy tickets, click here

Forsyth netted 16 times over the weekend to top the competition goal scoring charts and help Surbiton book their place in the Finals at the Copper Box Arena on February 2.

The Scottish striker, however, will not be available for the big day as she will be with the Great Britain side who are touring the southern hemisphere for the Pro League, taking on Australia on February 1 and 2 before meeting New Zealand on February 8 and 9.

He is among a healthy Surbiton contingent which includes Harry Gibson, Luke Taylor, James Gall, Tom Sorsby and Zach Wallace.

It means they could be vulnerable in the indoor playoffs without some of their key men. East Grinstead finished second in the table to cement their place in the final four.They secured three wins from their four games over the weekend to finish three points behind Surbiton at the top of the table.

On Saturday, the Sussex side won 4-3 against Reading and 7-3 versus Bowdon before picking up a 4-1 win against Sevenoaks on Sunday.

Holcombe and Wimbledon were the final side to secure their place in the finals weekend.

Surbiton’s women finished in eighth place in their indoor campaign and so will now go back to focusing on their outdoor season. They also have a big contingent in the GB Pro League line-up with Hannah Martin, Giselle Ansley, Hollie Pearne-Webb, Sabbie Heesh and Jo Hunter heading down under.

Looking at his panel, GB coach Mark Hager said: “It’s a really exciting time. We’ve got good versatility in our squad. It’s exciting to be able to start and get underway.

“It will be an interesting concept playing the back-to-back games, which we had a little bit of experience of with the FIH Olympic Qualifier.

“This is an opportunity for us to start well with some good challenges – Australia played in the Grand Final last year and New Zealand have got a few players who have come back which will be interesting.”

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