This Sunday, 30th of January is a date that i mark out on the calender straight away, the indoor Super Sixes finals. Those that don’t know, this is the finals of the English Indoor Premiership and to me the biggest event in English hockey. The semi finals are as follows, East Grinstead vs Slough and Buckingham vs Repton (women) followed by the mens semi finals East Grinstead vs Surbiton and H&W vs Wimbledon .
I have asked a couple of East grinstead players to gibe their thoughts on the day including myself.
As someone who loves indoor and plays for a historic indoor teams in East Grinstead this doesn’t come as a surprise. The level of hockey is great but more importantly the passion from the fans that come along make it a great day out. We go into our semi finals as underdogs as we play Surbiton who finished top of the league and have a number of skilled players to look out for but for me the one to keep an eye on would be David Goodfield. As for East Grinstead we have a number of players with experience with Niall Stott, Ben Mackey, Dan Faulkner and Richard Lane. The ones to keep an eye out for would be our two South Africans Jarryd Jones and Richard Curtis.
Richard Curtis:
Absolutely buzzing! It’s One of the most exciting days on the England hockey calendar and I’m very excited to be representing EG in the semifinals in my first season with them. One of the best parts of the day is the EG supporters that turn up to support their club , the vibe and atmosphere they bring is electrifying.I like the fact that they live steam it to, bringing much needed exposure to the sport.
Surbtion are reigning champs and have contributed to dominate in the pool stages this season. We are looking forward to being the “underdogs” and seeing what we can achieve as a team.
Players to look out for:
Luke Taylor, Jamie Golden, Arjan
Players to watch out for from us are very experienced Scottish internationals Ross Stott and Niall Stott, South African international Jarryd Jones, Daniel Faulkner and Ben Mackay
Daniel Faulkner;
The day at the Copperbox is one that we as East Grinstead pencil in as a whole club at the very start of every season so it is fantastic for us that we are the only club with both a women’s and a mens team into the final four. Always a great day out for the supporters and probably an even better experience for the players who get to play in a world class venue in front of big crowds. Surbiton go into the semi finals as undeniable favourites but with no unbeaten team in the competition on the mens side, there is certainly no forgone conclusions in either semi final.
Players to look out for Surbiton are Jonny Gall and David Goodfield. Both control the game for Surbiton from the back with their experience. The Stotts for East Grinstead bring years of experience with them into the semi final clash with Jarryd Jones making his finals day debut contributing some important goals in the group stages.
Richard Lane:
Super 6’s has to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest date in the calendar for the domestic league. Always something to look forward to. Surbiton will go in as favourites, and play a quick counter attack style of hockey, but are by no means unbeatable. Players to watch: Jarrad Jones and Kyle Whyte are both excellent indoor players and likely to pop up with a goal or two. Also the Stott brothers, bring an unrivalled experience to the EG side which could prove crucial in big games.
Harriet Mitchell:
We are a really young team. Less than half of the squad have experienced premier league Indoor before, so this is a fantastic opportunity to continue to learn and play on a big stage.
Slough are a brilliant indoor team, with a wealth of experience and some indoor Legends.
Players to watch:
Slough: Mel Ball – best indoor forward England had EVER seen.
EG: Chloe Brown
Amy Thompson:
I’m really looking forward to playing for East Grinstead at one of the biggest events in the hockey calendar. The group stages of the competition showed just how competitive the finals day will be, with Slough, Repton and Buckingham putting out extremely talented teams. Players to watch: Chloe Brown (AKA Irish) and Harriet Mitchell are both great indoor players, with Chloe being one of our highest goal scorers. A young player to watch is Eliza Wheeler, she is extremely talented and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of her in the future.
Ellie Rayer:
Thoughts on the day… I’m really looking forward to the Super 6 finals on Sunday! Indoor is such an exciting game and the momentum can change in seconds so you know that every game is going to be end to end especially with so much on the line! It’s so great for the club to have both mens and womens teams there and amazing to see that so many EG people have bought tickets! I last played in the finals in 2019 and that was a pretty great experience so hoping that we can go there and replicate it!
Slough… Slough are a really good indoor side, with a pretty impressive record. Growing up and watching the finals I can always remember them being up there as one of the teams to beat and that hasn’t changed. We know it will be a tough game and it’s all to play for but we’ve got to believe that we can go out there, back ourselves and stick to the game plan and that’ll put us in the best place to try and secure our place in the final!
Players… It’s a great group of girls and we know we play our best hockey when we’re out there supporting each other with a smile on our face! I’d say we’re a relatively young team across the board but we’ve got some classy players throughout! H leads from the front, Irish can be lethal at corners and Thommo seems to play the game in slow motion!
It will no doubt be a great day of indoor hockey and exciting day for all the fans that will be watching, looking forward to seeing many of you there.
Ross Stott
