— EGHC Our Club

Our History

From a mixed club founded by a local curate in 1897 to Olympic champions and national titles — explore East Grinstead Hockey Club decade by decade. Choose a decade to open its story.

Start in 1897 Hall of Fame

1897 founded · 1923-24 1st XI played 20, won 20 · 1988 Olympic gold for Ian Taylor and a place in the first National League

— Decade by decade

Nearly 130 years of East Grinstead hockey

Each tile opens a panel with the story of that decade, with photographs from the club archive.

1890s

1897 – 1899

A club is born

Founded by the Rev. L.H. Dahl, curate of St Swithun's, as a mixed club playing on a ground in Imberhorne Lane.

Open the 1890s

1900s

1900 – 1909

Lost and found

Disbanded and revived more than once — by 1908 the club was playing at Dormans Park, four miles out of town.

Open the 1900s

1910s

1910 – 1919

Into the Great War

A famous 1-0 win over Beckenham, the c.1912 team photograph, and play suspended in 1916.

Open the 1910s

1920s

1920 – 1929

The unbeaten XI

Reformed by Bernard Castle in 1920. In 1923-24 the 1st XI won all 20 games — and beat the mighty Ghosts.

Open the 1920s

1930s

1930 – 1939

County stalwarts

One defeat all season in 1932-33, Bernard Castle's Sussex caps record and the Johnson brothers.

Open the 1930s

1940s

1940 – 1949

War, and a French connection

The club's records are lost to a wartime bomb — then an Easter trip to Dieppe in 1949 starts a tradition.

Open the 1940s

1950s

1950 – 1959

The Easter Festival grows

Rouen and Hamburg join the festival, and Olympic bronze medallist Derek Day joins the club.

Open the 1950s

1960s

1960 – 1969

A new home at Saint Hill

The Saint Hill ground opens in 1960 and the festival's trophy is renamed the Jacque Paloume Trophy.

Open the 1960s

1970s

1970 – 1979

A family festival

Amstelveen, Croydon and Inverleith join the Easter Festival, and a 'Young Lions' side of members' sons takes the field.

Open the 1970s

1980s

1980 – 1989

Olympic gold and the National League

Ian Taylor's gold in Seoul, Roger Dakin's coaching and a place in the first National League in 1988.

Open the 1980s

1990s

1990 – 1999

A national club at 100

National indoor champions in 1993, David Luckes at two Olympics and the club's centenary in 1997.

Open the 1990s

2000s

2000 – 2009

Champions indoors and out

National indoor titles in 2005, 2006 and 2009 — and the men's Premier League title in 2009.

Open the 2000s

2010s

2010 – 2019

The decade of titles

The 2010 Premier League title, nine men's indoor titles and the women's climb to the top flight.

Open the 2010s

2020s

2020 – today

Writing the next chapter

The women win the Premier League in 2023, add four more indoor titles and European indoor bronze, as East Grinstead heads towards 130 years.

Open the 2020s

The story to 1997 is drawn from East Grinstead Hockey Club Centenary History 1897–1997, produced by John Harris with Owen Hill, Brian Poole, David Sumpter and Maurice Tester. Photographs are reproduced from the book, including images courtesy of East Grinstead Town Museum and Mrs R. Major. Later decades draw on the club honours record.

Help us write the next chapter

Do you have photographs, programmes, fixture cards or memories from any era — especially the years since 1997? We would love to add them to the club story.

Share your memories Meet the Hall of Fame

Lost and found

Revived 1903 · Ground at “Stoneleigh” 1905 · Disbanded 1907 · Restarted at Dormans Park 1908 · West Street Cricket Ground from 1909-10

A Grenville hockey stick advertisement from Hockey, 4 September 1908. A “Pickering St. George” stick cost 8/6.

Men's matches were reported in the magazine Hockey and Winter Sports in 1900 and 1901, against Worthing, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Rottingdean, Portslade, Eastbourne and Beckenham — presumably travelling to away games by train. Hockey World later claimed the club “became defunct” in 1900, but those 1901 reports show otherwise. No records of matches in 1902 have been found.

According to Hockey World, the club was revived in 1903 “mainly owing to the energies of Mr. P.A. Robson”, formerly of the famous Blackheath club and one of the five members who had reorganised it to play the “association” rather than the “union” game. Under the secretaryship of E.G. Moore, the revived club became a men's club.

Finding somewhere to play was a constant struggle. The first ground, near the present Mount Noddy Recreation Ground, was so poor that good play was impossible. In 1905 A.D. Cochrane, an ardent supporter, lent his private ground at “Stoneleigh”; there were just twelve playing members and “makeshifts” often had to be found. In 1906 the club moved back near the recreation ground, and in 1907, short of members, it had to be disbanded. Robson came to the rescue again: a new ground was found at Dormans Park, four miles from the town, and the club started again in 1908.

Conditions could be grim. A report in Hockey (13 December 1907) describes Brighton v. East Grinstead at Dormans Park: the long journey meant a start after 3 o'clock, Brighton scored twice in five minutes, and after that “the game could hardly be called hockey, the ground being quite unfit for the game.” The same journal reckoned there were about 600 clubs in the country, and in 1908 asked each for 2/6 to help entertain the Olympic Games hockey teams.

From the 1909-10 season home games moved to the West Street Cricket Ground. Between 1903 and 1910 the captains were Spencer Hughes and P.A. Robson, with Edward Blount as President, and Spencer Hughes and Hooper were picked for the County in 1905. Opponents included Hastings, the Royal Sussex Regiment, Malden, Brighton, Seaford, Redhill, Horsham, Haywards Heath, Lowfield Heath, Frant and Tulse Hill.

The unbeaten XI

Reformed 1920 · 1920-21: P19 W12 D2 L5 · 1923-24 1st XI: P20 W20 D0 L0, goals 98–22 · Beat the Ghosts 2-0, Easter 1924

The unbeaten 1st XI, 1923-24. Standing: G.D. Lovell, Douglas Tedder, S.G. Bridgeland, Walter Walford, Jack Rogers, Fred Heasman, H.J. Foster-Smith, Arnold Hett, Reg Streeter. Seated: Fred Maplesden, Bernard Castle, Cecil Johnson. Photo: Ernest Watts, East Grinstead © East Grinstead Town Museum.

Probably the 1926-27 1st XI. Standing: Walter Abbott, E. Walford, F.W. Willshee, A.W. Woolley, Jim Whittle, E.L. Formby. Middle: Dixon, Cecil Johnson, Fred Maplesden, Bernard Castle, Kenneth Barnes. Front: Reg Streeter, Rowland Johnson.

The completed 1923-24 fixture card — First XI, Second XI and Ladies' XI — with every 1st XI result marked as a win.

There was no hockey from 1916 until 1920, when the club was reformed, largely through the efforts of Bernard Castle. This part of the story is precisely recorded, thanks to a fully completed fixture card handed down through successive secretaries and preserved by Tony Blunt, and to the signed fixture cards of A.I. Hett.

The President was again E.C. Blount of Imberhorne, and the men shared their first fixture card with the Ladies Club. B.A. Castle was Secretary and the Rev. W.E. Sealy Treasurer. E. Walford captained for two seasons before Castle took over, with F.C. Maplesden as Vice-Captain, and the first committee was A. Johnson, F. Heasman, W. Lamkin and S. Bridgeland. Bridgeland, the goalkeeper, came from the family that owned the ironmongers and general store in the centre of town.

The first season, 1920-21, brought 12 wins from 19 games, including 15-0 against the Royal Field Artillery, 14-1 at Horsham and an 8-1 “trouncing” of Brighton for fielding an ‘A’ side. A 2nd XI was fielded for the first time on 31 December 1921.

1923-24 was the high point of the club's early history. The 1st XI played 20 and won 20, scoring 98 and conceding 22, and the 2nd XI lost only once in 12. The President put their success partly down to “the extraordinary state of physical development which the team seem to have reached” — at a time when training was almost unheard of. Castle was consistently picked for the County, Tedder had been chosen for Sussex at sixteen, Maplesden was a rock in defence and Streeter a prolific scorer. The highlight was a 2-0 win over the Ghosts at Easter 1924: a side of past and present internationals who otherwise won all 24 of their games that season. Streeter and Tedder scored.

The following season brought A.W. Woolley, a class player who later played inside left for England. He marked his arrival with a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Kenley, then scored 12 in a 16-0 defeat of Latchmere. At the AGM on 15 April 1926 the club's founder, the Rev. L.H. Dahl, returned as a guest and called it “the happiest day of his life”. He remembered telling a Mr Whitfield that the town needed a hockey club, and being told: “Why do you not start one!” — and he did.

Olympic gold and the National League

Ian Taylor: Olympic bronze 1984, gold 1988 · Men's National Indoor Champions 1986 · South League champions, into the first National League, 1988

Ian Taylor — 80 Great Britain and 91 England caps, and Olympic gold in Seoul, 1988.

Roger Dakin — goalkeeper, England indoor international and coach, and East Grinstead's first National League coach.

Rouen, Easter 1983 — East Grinstead in white. Back row: Brian Poole, Peter Malkin, Owen Hill, not known, Keith Whitlock, Andrew Lloyd. Front: Michael Leman, Andrew Campbell, Jack De Nayer, Gordon George, Steve Kent, Hans Borkman.

Hamburg, Easter 1989 — the festival rolls on.

The 1980s saw East Grinstead climb to the top of the English game — with the best goalkeeper in the world between the posts. Ian Taylor had started as a twelve-year-old at Queen Elizabeth's, Hartlebury, told to stand in goal while the senior boys practised; the first shot fractured his skull, but he went back in goal after his recovery and never looked back. He played in the years when hockey “took off”. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Great Britain, only called up when Russia withdrew, won bronze, beating Australia 3-2 in a match in which they conceded thirty-three penalty corners. At Seoul in 1988 Taylor carried the Union Jack at the head of the British team, and in the final he and his fellow defenders defied the German specialists at nine penalty corners to win Olympic gold. He retired with 80 Great Britain and 91 England caps, having made a very significant contribution to East Grinstead's successful years before the National League.

Roger Dakin had built his own international career through indoor hockey at Tulse Hill, where as player-coach he encouraged Richard Leman to begin his outstanding indoor career. He won thirty-one England indoor caps and, as England coach, steered the side to a silver medal at the 1984 European Championships. As Secretary of the Hockey Association's Indoor Committee he made sure East Grinstead took part in all the major indoor events, and in 1986 — the year the club's men became National Indoor Champions — he was Public Relations Director of the hugely successful World Cup at Willesden, where England reached the final. He received the Hockey Association Award of Merit in 1987.

When the National League began in 1988, East Grinstead qualified automatically as South League champions, with Dakin the obvious choice as coach. A young goalkeeper, David Luckes, had arrived at Sussex University in the autumn of 1987 and, with no reply from Lewes, telephoned East Grinstead — only to find the 1st and 2nd XI goalkeeping places filled by Ian Taylor and “the loquacious” David Payne. His chance came in the Sussex Cup Final at the end of the season. By October 1988 Taylor had retired, and Luckes was in goal as the 1st XI adjusted from Crowborough Thirds on grass to Teddington Firsts on astro. In January 1989, days after his leg came out of plaster, he was the main reason for a 2-1 win over Hounslow at Feltham in the club's first League meeting with the eventual League Cup winners. His first senior cap followed that May.