Premier Division Phase 2 and beyond…
Whilst most teams in the club are approaching the final weeks of their season, our Men’s 1st team have not played an outdoor league game since 22nd November. This is nearly 4 months. They resume phase 2 of the Premier Division next Saturday when they travel to East Grinstead on Sunday 145h March for a 14:00 PB. To help understand why this happened and what can be expected of phase 2 and in deed phase 3 please read on!
Why has there been such a long gap?
The answer to this thorny question is relatively straightforward- that answer bering that England Hockey chose to work around the International Calendar. Due to the failure of England to qualify outright for the world cup through the Pro-League they have had to attend the world-cup qualifiers taking place in Egypt (and India and Chile) this week. To accommodate that the league could only resume once those England players (and Scotland, Welsh and from a Southgate POV a certain USA player) had returned from International duty abroad. The earliest date for that was Saturday 14th March
Does this mean the league will go on past the end of the season?
Another way to look at this is that our league season has now been extended until the first weekend of May- although between Saturday 28th March and 5th May there will only be one team in league action across the entire club- our M1.
What happens in Phase 2
To answer that let us just reflect on what happened during phase 1. Phase 1 took place through the Autumn and is the easiest phase to explain- in short everyone plays everyone once. This leaves teams placed 1-12.
In phase 2 the top 6 (Surbiton, H&W, Wimbledon, OG’s, Holcombe and Oxted) and bottom 6 ( East Grinstead, Reading, Cardiff & Met, Southgate, Brooklands and Oxted) split- carrying their points with them. Each team in top and bottom play each other once. So 5 games per team- taking place over 4 successive weekends including a double header weekend on the 21/22 March.
Will Phase 2 be exciting?
The answer for Southgate is yes. Hugely. In Phase 1 we played a league of two halves- half the teams we competed with and could/should have beaten. The other half in the top half we struggled against.
So phase 2 means every game is winnable- and we have a real chance of qualifying for phase 3 as a top 8 team (more of that later)>
Yet for teams in the top 6- the answer is arguably that the phase 2 is not exciting. All those 6 teams have held their place in the league for next year- league stats assured. They will all feature in the top 8 in phase 3- and the only thing at stake is who will win phase and in so dong qualify for a place to play in Europe. Yet Surbiton are the run away league leaders with a 7 point head start on Wimbledon in 2nd. Holcombe and Oxted in 5th and 6th have nothing to play for except draw positions for phase 3. In short for drama the place to be is the bottom 6.
In the bottom 6- you have Beeston cut adrift with 1 point on bottom and Brooklands on 5 points in 11th. These are the two sides currently favourites for relegation. Above them just 4 points separate 7th (EG) and 10th Southgate. This means all things could happen. From a Southgate point of view there is a real world where we could finish 7th or 8th in phase 2 and still win the league…
yes really.
So what is Phase 3 about?
So…phase 3. If you are in the bottom 4 (9th-12th) your points carry over and each team plays each other once. At the end of that the two teams with the lowest points and relegated.
This could mean if there are sufficient points difference after phase 2- phase 3 could already be pre-determined and some or all games are dead rubbers (eg last years final games),
Meanwhile in the top 8 – 2 mini leagues are formed of 4 teams. The teams are jumbled up 1st, 4th, 5th and 8th play in one, and 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th play in the other. After each team has played each other once the top 4 sides go through to the final phase which is the play off weekend held at Surbiton HC from the 3-5th May.
How can I get involved
The most important thing we want our members to do is to get involved by supporting the side. Every game counts and each one is really important. Phase 2 schedules are below:
Sunday 15th March EAST GRINSTEAD vs SOUTHGATE (A) 14:00
Saturday 21st March BEESTON vs SOUTHGATE (A) 18:00
Sunday 22nd March SOUTHGATE vs CARDIFF & MET (H) 14:00
Saturday 28th March SOUTHGATE vs BROOKLANDS (H) 18:00
Saturday 11th April SOUTHGATE vs READING (H) 18:00
For the 3 home games above we need volunteers on match days to help us provide our famous game-day experience. From being the camera person, doing ball patrol, playing the music to being the MC- every game needs a team to support the action on the pitch.
When will we know fixtures for Phase 3
The answer to that is early in the week commencing 12th April. We don’t know who we are playing or where we will be playing but we do know we have 3 more games played on the 2 successive weekends of the last two weeks of April 18/19 and April 25/26.