England Hockey League Premier Division 2025/26 season explained

The England Hockey League Premier Division returns to action this weekend for the start of the 2025/26 season.

The 2024/25 campaign saw exciting matches and storylines emerge throughout the season, concluding with Surbiton lifting the Men’s Premier Division title to prevent Old Georgians lifting their fourth consecutive league title. While Reading Women beat nine-time champions, Surbiton, in the Premier Division final to win their first title since 2013.

Promoted teams Reading and Brooklands Manchester University will be competing in the Open/Men’s Premier Division this season, while in the Women’s Premier Division, Barnes and Durham University enter the league after promotion last season.

Similar to the last two England Hockey League Premier Division seasons, the upcoming campaign will see a 19-match season and a finals weekend. Here’s how every phase works in the lead up to the finals weekend where the 2025/26 Premier Division champions will be crowned.

Matches 1-11 (20 September – 22 November)

The opening phase of the season acts as a standard league format.

All 12 teams from each league will compete against each other once (11 matches) with a points system of:

Win = Three points

Draw = One point

Loss = Zero points

After the opening 11 matches the leagues will be split in half depending on each team’s final standings.

Matches 12-16 (dates TBC)

Teams placed first to sixth from their opening 11 matches will compete in the Top Six league, while teams placed seventh to twelfth will compete in the Lower Six league.

Teams will then play a total of five matches, playing each team in their respective league once.

The final standings of the total 16 matches will decide the pool groups heading into the Finals weekend play offs.

Matches 17-19, Play Offs (dates TBC)

The next three matches will feature three pools. The top eight teams, from the first 16 matches, will move into the finals weekend play off pools (Pool A and Pool B).

Pool A will feature first, fourth, fifth and eight placed team.

Pool B will feature second, third, sixth and seventh placed team.

These teams will have their point totals restarted and will start again on zero points. These teams will play each of their Pool teams once, in a total of three matches.

Win = Three points

Draw = One point and an extra bonus point for the shootout winner

Loss = Zero points

The top two teams from both Pool A and B will continue to the Finals Weekend.

The bottom four teams from the opening 16 matches of the season (ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth) will compete in Pool C.

These teams will carry over their points from the previous matches played and will also play each other once with a total of three matches.

These matches will follow the same points system as played in previous stages with no shootout being played for a bonus point in a scenario of a draw.

The bottom two teams of Pool C will be relegated to Division One North & South while the winners from these two divisions will be promoted to the Premier Division for the 2026/27 season.

Finals Weekend (Date and Location TBC)

The top two teams from Pool A and B from both the Open/Men’s and Women’s Premier Division will compete at the Finals weekend where two champions will be crowned.

Semi-finals will be played between first place of Pool A and second place of Pool B, and first place of Pool B and second place of Pool A.

These matches will be in a one-match-knockout format with the winners from each semi-final continuing to the Premier Division finals match, while the losers from each semi-final will play each other with a chance of European qualification up for grabs for the winner.

The winners from each semi-final will play in the Premier Division finals with the winner being crowned Premier Division champions 2025/26 and will earn England’s top EuroHockey club spot for the following season.