Mel Clewlow admits Canterbury Hockey Club’s ladies have already dispelled any pre-season doubts that she had about how the new look team would fare.

Clewlow brought all her vast experience to bear on Saturday to help Canterbury beat Surbition 2-1 at Polo Farm and so join Reading at the top of the Investec Women’s Premier Division.

And afterwards the former Great Britain Olympian said: “Of the 18 players who went to the play-offs last season only five of them are still with us, and so during the summer you do have concerns about how you are going to get on in the new season.

“But we have brought a couple of new players in and some of the juniors have stepped up and made their mark, and I think we have now got a really good balance between the experienced players and the juniors coming through.

“On paper Surbiton looked the strong team but I think we have already proved this season that we are going to be very difficult to break down and score against, and we showed that again on Saturday.”

Neither the ladies nor the men have a game this weekend due to the EH Futures Cup.