Now you may be forgiven if you are unable to name many prominent hockey clubs within Kent, let alone venturing further afield.

If however, you were paying close attention throughout the sports’ coverage at Rio 2016, you may be familiar with this one.

Holcombe Hockey Club in Rochester, Kent is home to Men’s and Women’s sides who compete in the National Premier League; the highest domestic league in the country.

Having contributed 11 players to TeamGB’s hockey squads (7 men and 4 women) as well as Brazil’s first and only Olympic goal-scorer in home-grown Stephane Verhle-Smith, Holcombe has undoubtedly become a dominant force in English Hockey.

The women, after earning a series of consecutive promotions are enjoying the benefits of being an established Premier League side; competing for playoff positions to win a Championship. A fantastic late push last season saw them grab the 4^th playoff position in the final week however a strong performance in their semi-final wasn’t enough to deter reigning champions Surbiton who have now been unbeaten in domestic competition for over 2 years.

The men debuted in the league last season after gaining promotion from the East Conference and subsequently took it by storm; going undefeated through all 18 games and taking the title by 7 points. Having slipped up in our playoff semi-final against Wimbledon at the National Stadium last April, we had to settle for the European qualification that accompanied our league win, but a Championship-or-bust mentality made that hard to swallow on its own.

With this blog, I’m going to be keeping you up-to-date on all things Holcombe HC with the Women’s and Men’s 1^st teams flying the flag in across both the country and continent.

My name’s Nick Bandurak and I play for Holcombe Men’s 1^st team after moving down to Kent last summer.

So where are we now?!

With the 2016/17 season just days away, the final stages of pre-season have been falling into place.

The women hosted Sevenoaks of the East Conference in their final friendly on Saturday night. A strong performance from the girls saw them run out 3-1 winners; a fine result considering the number of notable absentees from the group.

A measure of the club was demonstrated with the attendance for the special ceremony of 3 of our 4 Olympic Gold Medallists in Nicola White, Shona McCallin and Maddie Hinch. The girls brought their medals down the ground to come and meet the juniors and members alike and talk through some of their experiences out in Rio.

For the first team to follow that up with such a confident victory before the start of the new season will do wonders for the confidence of the group.

The girls host Surbiton at 4pm on Saturday 17^th in a repeat of their Playoff semi-final in April. The absence of up to 8 players as well as Head Coach Kevin Johnson due to international commitments, injuries and unavailability has left a monumental challenge awaiting them. Some shrewd new signings integrated seamlessly into the squad however and will face a baptism of fire against the reigning champions from West London.

The men’s 1^st team headed to Hamburg, Germany over the weekend for matches against Athletic Terrassa of Spain, An der Alster of Germany and their neighbouring domestic giants; Uhlenhorster Hamburg.

Injuries and work commitments meant that we faced UHC and Terrassa with 12 men on the Friday night. Strong 2-2 and 1-1 draws respectively with 2 powerhouses of European hockey was a massive confidence boost ahead of a tough weekend.

With 2 players joining the group ahead of Saturday, a full match against UHC, 3 time European Champions and boasting a number of double and triple Olympic medallists. Still 2 players short of the usual 16, a monumental effort saw us come away with a 4-1 win and a real sense of what we’re capable of.

A further game on the Sunday against An der Alster that we lost 3-2 in the final 30 seconds was a tough way to end an exhausting weekend but just about the perfect preparation for next weekend’s opener.

Following our women, we also open our season as hosts to Surbiton on Saturday night, who were our closest rivals last season, ultimately claiming second place in the league. Without GB captain Barry Middleton and with some late fitness questions to be answered, we have a tough challenge ahead of a Surbiton side that recruited well over the summer.

If you want to come on down and check out some top class hockey, find a new sport to fall in love with or simply to come down to meet some top class players, people and Olympians, then both games are free to watch this Saturday!

Come along to Holcombe Park at ME1 2XX or check out www.holcombehc.org.uk for more info!

Want to know more, have some comments, questions or just want to get in touch?

Follow me @BandurakWriting on Twitter or via www.nickbandurakblog.wordpress.com

That’s all for now – fingers crossed for a big week of training and a strong start to the season for both sides!