Our Club History
Our hockey club was formed on 18th July, 1950. It was originally named Mitcham ‘Old Girls’ Hockey Club because membership was exclusive to graduates of Mitcham County School for Girls, located on Cranmer Road, (now Cranmer Primary School).
The club played on the school fields, and played against clubs such as Wallington, Chelsea Polytechnic, and Furzedown College. In 1951, the club reported having had a ‘very successful first season’ with 10 wins and 67 goals. The club also entered the Surrey Inter-Club Tournament every year, often coming in at the bottom, but annual reports were encouraging suggesting the team enjoyed the games and saw gradual improvement.
The ‘Old Girls’ additionally played 1-2 matches against the school’s first team every year. In 1969, a club member, Carolyn Doswell nee Pummel, writes,
The third match of the season was against the school and reminded some of us of those days long ago when we were at school and played against the ‘Old Girls’ ourselves. I can remember that these were the games we faced with the most trepidation. Those rather solid Amazons, who could flick the ball from one end of the pitch to the other with utmost ease and who had the stamina of Olympic Marathon runners, were able to beat us.
Nowadays as an ‘Old Girl’ I wonder how we still manage it. Nature has restored the balance somewhat and the ‘Old Girls’ are now only bigger round the middle, but what we lose in agility we make up for in cunning learnt from years of experience.
Early annual club reports in the Mitcham County School for Girls bulletin mentions the attackers being the weak link of the team, due to their lack of sufficient cooperation, but they gradually improved by 1957. There were a couple of seasons when they did not have a goalkeeper, but in the season of 1956/7 they gained a ‘new member who, although without any previous experience, volunteered and filled this position admirably and this has done much towards stabilising the whole team’.
In 1958, Marian Bower left the club, after being the captain for five seasons. It was a big blow for the club, and ‘It was soon realised after a few matches that everyone would have to pull together and play as a team’.
1960 was an ‘interesting’ season due to new clubs in the fixture list: Southlands College, Metropolitan Police Women and Claygate. The year also yielded better weather, which meant less cancelled matches. The highlight of the season was the match against Redwings, a Civil Service team at Barnes, though not for the reason you might think: ‘The pitch was only a few hundred yards from the river and after the match both teams rushed over to the bank in plenty of time to see Oxford and Cambridge crews row by, followed by a huge fleet of launches. Certainly there never was a more fortunate fixture made a year ahead.’
Glimpses of such activities highlight the fact that our club has always been very social and enjoyed doing things together on and off the pitch. Another example is in 1953, when the club performed an original musical version of ‘A Hockey Afternoon’ at Surrey Fair.
The annual report of 1961 is dire, with the concern that the club would cease to exist due to the number of members who had left. The only factor that enabled them to continue for another season was the bad weather which cancelled most of their games, especially during the beginning of the season. This gave them more time to recruit three or four new members, enabling the club to carry on. However, as more members were due to leave, the future of the club was uncertain.
The Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre did not hold the annual school bulletins between 1961-1968, but in the 1969 school bulletin – the final year of Mitcham County School for Girls – the club reports having had a ‘frustrating’ season, with 10 games cancelled, 9 lost, 2 won, 3 drawn. Nevertheless, it is encouraging to read that not only did the club survive during the 1960s, but they also kept the Mitcham spirit. Despite the disappointing results of the season, they didn’t lose their love of the sport and playing together: ‘But whatever the result all the games were enjoyable and at least provided us with our weekly exercise if not a victory.’ Carolyn sums up our Mitcham spirit in 1969: ‘The only reason the ‘Old Girls continue is our enjoyment of the game. Certainly if we were after cups and medals on our results we would have all burnt our hockey sticks long ago!’
Becoming Mitcham Ladies Hockey Club
Due to London Borough of Merton adopting the comprehensive school system, in 1969 Mitcham County School for Girls changed from being a Grammar school to a Middle School. That year, Mitcham ‘Old Girls’ started to admit girls from other schools. It was also around that time that they moved their home pitch from the school to Rowan Girls School in the Pollards Hills, Mitcham. By late 1984, they had moved to the outdoor pursuits centre in Farm Road, Morden, and the club’s name was changed to Mitcham Ladies Hockey Club.
In the early 1990s, Merton Council changed the use of Farm Road, and so we had to move to Sutton borough near Roundshaw Estate. Over the next decade, for various reasons, we moved from one pitch to another, including Wimbledon Chase Middle School (now Wimbledon Chase Primary School); University of London grounds in Motspur Park, Kingston Borough (now Fulham football club); an astroturf pitch near Sutton Junior Tennis Centre. Then there was a period when the pitch was damaged, and we became a wandering club, borrowing other club’s grounds to play our home matches on.
However, while the club may have been pitchless, Coach John, who joined around 2000, provided a solid foundation for the team, and it was with him that the club expanded into 2 teams. By 2004, we had moved to an astroturf pitch at the current Tooting and Mitcham complex near Mitcham Tram stop. The club then played at Raynes Park Playing Fields, Whitgift in Croydon, as well as Raynes Park High School. Next we moved to Ricards Lodge High School in 2006, and this was also when the Rose & Crown in Wimbledon village started to sponsor us, and host our post-match teas.
The 15 years we played at Ricards was the era the club thrived in terms of competition in the league. In the 2011/12 season, the W1s came in first in Division 5, and by 2015 moved up to Division 3. (The award plaques from 2011 & 2012 are on display at the Rose & Crown.)
In 2016, some new hockey rules were introduced, including the one which we still sometimes forget in the heat of the moment:
13.2.f: from a free hit awarded to the attack within the 23 metres area, the ball must not be played into the circle until it has travelled at least 5 metres or has been touched by a player of the defending team.
It was also that year we posted our first instagram photo: ‘Wet and windy Saturday morning for a winning MItcham!’
When Wimbledon Club took the pitch at Ricards, we had to play in Epsom, which was not a convenient location for anyone. However, we stuck through it until 2022 when we found Wimbledon High School for Girls’ playing fields. We were delighted to be close to home again and the Rose & Crown. Nevertheless, this was a difficult year where we struggled to find enough players, even with many new players joining us. All the games were extremely tough, and we came in bottom, yet still we had lots of fun playing hockey and going to teas. The hardest part of that year was saying goodbye to our team captain and goalkeeper, Talia. Then two weeks before the beginning of the 2023 season, Wimbledon Club again took our pitch, and we found ourselves suddenly pitchless. However, with the help of Berrylands Hockey Club, and the generosity of Emmanuel School, we moved to Blagdons Sports Ground to play on their brand new pitch. With 6 new players, a new team captain, and a steadfast Mitcham spirit, we pressed forward. Ella selflessly stepped up to be our goalkeeper with Ellie and Bridget supporting her. Every week we felt ourselves improving as a team, learning to work together on the pitch.
Present
Today, we are a lively one-team club that plays in London Women’s Division 6 South West. During the winter (September - April) we play league matches on Saturdays. 2025/26 is our third season at Blagdons pitch, and we continue to train with our sister club, Berrylands, on Wednesday evenings. We are extremely lucky to have Gillian join us as our new coach in September 2025. We look forward to the seasons ahead.
It can be difficult being a small club, amongst so many giant clubs, but being small is also what binds us together. Moreover, England Hockey recently recognised the significance of small clubs (of less than 3 teams). It turns out that we make up the majority of the hockey clubs, and have much to contribute to the hockey community. England Hockey now has a forum for small clubs to share common challenges and solutions.
We are proud of the diversity in our team, in age, experience and skill, from members who have been in the club for 15+ years, to members who picked up a hockey stick for the first time in years, or even the first time ever. No matter what the ability, we play together as one team. We are always looking to welcome new members who want to have fun playing hockey.
In 2025 we celebrated the 75th anniversary of our club. Looking back, we see how far we’ve come from being a girls’ school alumni club. However, what strikes us more is how much we haven’t changed. Mitcham Ladies Hockey Club has always been a friendly group of women who play hockey because they enjoy the sport and enjoy playing with each other.