Both Surbiton first teams began the defence of their respective national league titles in fine style with Surbiton Ladies recording a comfortable 4-0 win at Slough and Surbiton Men coming out on top in a hotly contested London derby, 3-1 at home to Wimbledon.

Surbiton Ladies gave debuts to four players, Phoebe Willars, Erica Sanders and Susie Catlin, plus late signing, New Zealand’s number two goalkeeper, Grace O’Hanlon. After an initial ten minutes of defending against Slough’s forwards, Surbiton took control midway through the first half thanks to Emily Defroand’s quickfire open play double in the 19th and 20th minutes and Jo Hunter’s penalty corner deflection in the 25th minute.

Giselle Ansley put away a rebound from a penalty corner in the 45th minute to give Surbiton all three points.

Surbiton host Clifton Robinsons, 1-0 winners at Canterbury, tomorrow (Saturday) at 4 pm at Sugden Road.

Surbiton Men included new signings Tim Atkins, Tom Sorsby, Ben Boon and James Royce against Wimbledon in a match which was played in pouring rain. The weather failed to dampen Surbiton’s spirits, prolific goalscorer Alan Forsyth only needing eight minutes to open the scoring with a superb finish. Atkins added a second on his debut in the 16th minute with Forsyth scoring from the left of the circle six minutes before the interval.

Although Ben Arnold reduced the deficit three minutes into the second half, there was no further scoring in what proved to be a feisty match with the teams sharing four yellow cards. Surbiton’s Jonny Gall and Wimbledon’s Ed Horler both spent five minutes in the sin-bin after a first half clash with Gall being banished again in the second half, followed five minutes later by the visitors’ Michael Hoare.

Surbiton beat Wimbledon at Sugden Road for the first time in their history, their only other victory in ten top flight meetings coming at Kings College School where they won 2-1 last season.

Surbiton welcome newly promoted University of Exeter tomorrow (Saturday) at 6 pm as the second part of the first team doubleheader. Exeter lost 4-1 at home to East Grinstead.