Brighton & Hove got an immediate taste of how competitive life is going to be in the third tier of English hockey when they went down 4-1 to Surbiton 2s on Sunday in south London in the MHL Conference East.

After relegation last season they were handed the toughest of starts with a game at Surbiton, who were fielding a number of players with premier division experience and were quick and deadly on the counter attack.

Two goals in each half gave Surbiton the win with Adam Flett converting a penalty corner for Brighton just before half time.

"Three goals came from our mistakes. Obviously good players put you under that pressure," said Chris Borsoi, the Brighton head coach. "We need to be realistic about where we are. The biggest thing we can do is to have a rebuilding year and solidify."

Brighton, who gave Paddy Smith a national league debut, have added Mexico international Juan Sosa to their squad this season and welcomed back the experienced Luke Owen and Mike Burney. Dafydd Charles is adding his nous as assistant coach on the sidelines.

Brighton's opposition gets no easier this weekend as London Wayfarers come to Blatchington Mill on Sunday (1.30pm) as one of the pre-season favourites for promotion.

Weekend results: Bromley & Beckenham 1 Spencer 3, Old Cranleighans 1, London Wayfarers 2, Wimbledon 2s 6 West Herts 1, Hampstead & Westminster 2s 1 Tunbridge Wells 1, Surbiton 2s 4 Brighton & Hove 1.

Eastbourne 2s 1
BHHC 3s 2

Andrew Bromley reports: "A new season, a new squad and new ambitions. A new hope? Perhaps not for your correspondent, who's returning to Martlets 1 with the pads very firmly reattached after last season's 10 matches of freedom!

This year's M3 squad were picking up a slot in Martlets division one, following a final day relegation from last season. It's an odd league, as the changing fortunes of Sussex clubs can often be recognised by performances of teams in this league.

The aim for M3 this season is to have the crop of EH Tier 2 Trophy winners from last season, twinned with some 'quality' (tenuous) of yesteryear. Looked after by partners in crime Jon Williams and Andrew Bromley, the aim is to win with attractive, fun hockey whilst also teaching the youngsters plenty about the challenges to come. The only missing management member is Chris Page, who's moved to pastures new down under. We wish him and Emily well.

Our Saturday didn't start well, as the weather was grim and all of the adults turned up late. New defender Dan Hatton took so much offence to the internal condition of Bromley's car that he decided to leave his own rubbish in the pocket (fine incoming!)

After a brief chat about formation and the arranging of some away kit, we took to the pitch to warm up in what was now a beautiful afternoon. We went well for about four minutes until Ebo turned the ball over high up the pitch, moved the ball into their centre forward and he calmly slotted it past Bromley. Hmmm, not ideal!

Luckily the squad thought nothing of going behind and played some slick passing moves and generated numerous PCAs.

A brief chat at half time and we were ready to go for all three points. We'd waited slightly longer than we'd hoped but Jacob Young opened his account for the season with a deft back post deflection. This was followed swiftly by student Seb, who slammed home a PCA to get our noses in front.

We saw the match out and took the spoils. A fantastic win on the road and hopefully a sign of the hockey quality that's to come. Big performances all over the park including midfielders Lous and Theo, winger Milo and defender Fraz.

MoM went to Stan's midfield partner Woody White Socks with Jacob 'King of the Reeperbahn' Young picking up DoD.

St Francis 2s 2
BHHC 10s 1

BHHC 10s 3
BHHC 8s 5

Alistair Thomson reports: "Due to the momentous occasion of BHHC putting out the Men's 10s for the very first time, such an occasion befits a bumper match report – two games for the price of one.

Strangely for such an historic occasion, skipper Sale plus silent assassin Reedy decided the forgo being part of it in order to watch a bore fest at the Annex. An away game at St Francis was not the best option logistically for a new team with various new faces. Pre-match Tom, Nat, Harry and old boy Ed (first game in 10 years) were treated to Dreaders and Jephcott talking nonsense whilst we watched an enthralling Mid-Sussex inter-club game. With the arrival of College, Wappy and Doc, the new guys had to cope with Premier League nonsense. They must have wondered what club have they joined!

With a scratch side, plus missing the youth of last season, any sort of result looked a tall order. No whiteboard. No Myles. No juniors. No chance!

St Francis, with all their usual wily competitors, played their usual game of big hits and fast counter attacking. It wasn’t long before they were ahead with a bundled goal due to a lot of poor decisions in defence and midfield. Their usual style of hockey was causing confusion in the defence, so much so that at half time Wappy, without whiteboard, had to use sticks and balls to explain the concept of stepping into midfield to find someone to mark! Needless to say, this bamboozled College, “which balls are we? What are the sticks representing? Oh I don’t do all this logic stuff!”

The 10s kept themselves in the game with good work from all the new players, Harry, Ed, Tom and Nat. As usual the goal, when it came, was a bundled effort from Dreaders. Dreaders was again more clinical in front of goal than Doc, and in their stick throwing contest, Dreaders proved to be more skilful than Doc, with him being rewarded with some comments from the umpire.

St Francis' style of hockey proved too much and another scrambled goal gave them the points. Probably unlucky to not get at least a draw or even scramble a win. Post-game, the team decamped to the Sportsman pub round the corner from the Triangle as no one could face the long jaunt to Haywards Heath. During a well-deserved pint, Wappy whilst staring at ‘Keman’ sponsored club shirt, realised what Keman stood for! College was grateful for the insight as he had been struggling with that puzzle for 15 plus years!

Without time to recover from the opening game of the season the second match arrived, a potentially feisty encounter with the 8s. Still smarting from their unlucky relegation, which one of their elder statesmen had predicted a miraculous escape from whilst being bottom at January.

Team news: new guys Tom and Ed returned not put off the from previous week. No sign of Nat however, maybe experiencing the Doc physics monologue in the pub post-game was too much. The team were disappointed to hear that constant running Harry had been snatched by the 6s. However, the constant running part had been replaced, but unfortunately not the hockey skills - welcome back Stephen Spears! OTIF! AWESOME! Still missing was friendly assassin Reedy, who had gone camping near the Amex.

With only one sub, combined with Wappy planning to leave in the early stages of the second half, a result looked a tall order against the riches available to the 8s. This proved to be the case when with the first attack of the game, the 8s were ahead. New keeper Ric had barely time to learn the names of which of his defenders were to blame, when goal number two went in. Two goals in a matter of minutes coupled with torrential rain (pointless looking at the Met Office app) meant the 10s had to summon up some inner strength to stop the flow.

The scoring took a break for a while and was replaced with a lot of ‘dark arts’ from the 8s which the 10s were unable to replicate as Reedy was camping. One surprising fact about the 8s; they are full of quality umpires, which was handy as they were able to point out to the official umpires all their mistakes. No prizes for guessing who were involved! And if you guess Andy C, he was nowhere to be seen!

Again Ed, looked like someone who had been playing hockey for the last 10 years rather than it being his second game back. Unfortunately, the grip on his ten-year-old astros contributed to his constant aquaplaning, frequently with him ending up in a heap on the floor.

3-0 down and the game looked dead for the 10s. No wait, Ed was there to turn in a sizzling cross from Thompo, not sure who else in the team could have done that! 3-1 at half time. Thompo bleated to the umpires a la Guardiola about the over robustness of the 8s style of hockey, which was duly noted. Maybe it was the 10s turn to use ‘dark arts!

Controversially, the 10s decided to poach a last-minute addition to the multitude of subs that the 8s had. Jaspar had turned up on hearing that the 8s were massively short of players. Jaspar, realising on arrival, that he would be spending a good proportion of his time standing on the sidelines in the torrential rain, wasn’t too plussed. He needed little encouragement to accept an offer of constant pitch time from Thompo.

Needless to say, this elevated the level of chuntering from the 8s! “You’ve stolen our sub!” More woe was to come for the 8s. The 10s now down to the bare XI, with College nursing his hamstring and Wappy leaving the pitch five minutes ahead of his scheduled time due to yet another wayward pass, were glad of Jaspar to bolster the ranks.

There is an old saying, “When Wappy leaves early, the team scores”. Yet again this was proved to be true, as in quick succession Jaspar, then Ed scored to level the score. To say the 8s weren’t happy would have been an understatement. In the spirit of inter-club hockey and to promote calmness in the bar afterwards, the 10s decided to switch off and not to play to the whistle at two key moments. Final score 5-3.

A good feisty game to play in and probably a fair result in the end as the 8s missed many chances. Atul agreed afterwards that it was a good game for the 8s to get battle-hardened for the long season ahead in their quest for promotion.

Other results

East Grinstead 2s 2 BHHC 2s 0
St Francis 1s 0 BHHC 4s 5
BHHC 5s 6 Lewes 3s 3
Worthing 2s 4 BHHC 6s 2
BHHC 7s 3 Mid Sussex 3s 3
BHHC 8s 8 Worthing 6s 2
South Saxons 5s 0 BHHC 9s 2
BHHC 9s 3 St Francis 2s 0