Surrey Spartans are a community centred Men’s and Ladies hockey club who were established three years ago in 2010 and play their home games at Surrey Sports Park. The Spartans play in Black Shirts, Black Shorts/Skorts, and Black Socks with blue and yellow trim and each member is required to buy a Black club playing shirt when they join the club. The Surrey Spartans train on the astro-turf pitches at the Surrey Sports Park on Thursday evenings, with the Ladies training taking place from 6:45pm to 8:30pm and the Men’s from 8:15pm to 10pm. The Spartans are rapidly becoming a club embedded in the sporting community of Guildford and currently have four Men’s teams, two Ladies teams and a colts section for under 16’s.
The club was formed after a proposal was tabled to create a brand new club that was easily accessible and community focussed, it would provide development support to the University of Surrey Hockey Club as well as be open to the wider community. As the University of Surrey students were to be involved, the newly-built Sports Park was offered up as part of the deal as a new base with top of the range facilities.
In the 2010-11 season, the club fielded four Men’s teams and a Ladies team in the Surrey Hockey Leagues and was considered a great success as the Men’s 1st XI secured promotion from Surrey Division Two.
By the end of the following season the club had swelled to 80 members and the Ladies 1ST XI, Men’s 2nd XI and 3rd XI had all won promotion from their respective leagues. This was in part due to the club’s profile being raised when the Men’s First beat high profile opposition when the club hosted the group stage of the Surrey Cup and was selected to be one of two ‘Spotlight Clubs’ for the inaugural Harvest National Club Weekend. This gave the club the chance to give 200 young people the chance to take part in taster sessions and meet GB Hockey star Jonty Clarke.
The club was also lucky enough to be part of the launch of a new version of the game, Rush Hockey; which has now taken the country by storm and in the summer of 2012 the club ran Rush Hockey and Back to Hockey sessions. There were even more community activities held though as the club provided hockey tasters all over the summer at the Guildford Olympic Torch Relay Event, StreetClash and hosting England Hockey for the Guildford leg of the Big Dribble.
The club was very proud to receive recognition for these achievements and was awarded the Runner Up for Community Award at the Guildford Sports Awards. It has since tried to push on even more by delivering youth coaching sessions through open access events such as Guildford Borough’s FISH camps and Surrey Youth Games. On top of this they have taken a step back from hockey to help support the community’s volunteers through organising and securing funding for umpire and training courses.
The club has achieved a tremendous amount in the short time that it has been established by creating a welcoming and supportive environment for players of all abilities whilst supporting the development the University of Surrey Hockey Club, its players and its volunteers. Its work in the community has helped promote hockey and increase participation and if you are looking for a club to join this season, then look no further than the Surrey Spartans!
James Martin
