A return to top flight hockey awaits Canterbury’s men, as they step up preparations for the start of the season next month.

The players have been back training for the past month but lost 4-1 in their first pre-season friendly at East Grinstead at the weekend.

Skipper Matt Harper (pictured), leading the side for the fourth year, said: "We only had five or six players involved who were in the play-offs last season.

"Most of the training so far has been fitness based but we experimented a lot in the game, worked on different things and it was good match practice." Christ Church University student Liam Foster has arrived from Kent rivals Holcombe, while former skipper Andy Richardson is returning but Canterbury lose youngsters Ben Hare and Andrew Sutherland to university.

Harper had a tough time in his first year in the job, culminating in the club’s relegation but two years on, he feels that he and the team have learnt from the experience.

He said: "I learnt how to deal with players but that was a tricky season and showed us what we had to do to compete and where we were falling down."

Canterbury’s training squad numbers around 50 at the moment but that will eventually be trimmed to 30, with around 25 being registered for the new England Hockey League Premier Division season.

They face Surbiton in two more pre-season warm-up games at Polo Farm this weekend and then travel to Lille to compete in a tournament over Bank Holiday weekend, playing four games in
two days.

Canterbury begin their Premier Division campaign with two away games, at Brooklands on September 19, and Hampstead & Westminster a week later.