Let's start with the obvious: no, we didn't retain the title. Turns out being defending champions is harder than it looks. Who knew that every team in the Premier Division would spend the entire summer watching the Nottingham final on repeat and plotting revenge? They did, and fair play to them.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Before a ball was hit in 2025/26, our Women's 1st XI had already written themselves into Reading Hockey Club history. Emma Findlay's powerful backhand strike and a superb performance from keeper Nikki Cochrane had delivered a first Premier Division title since 2013 — and with it, a ticket to European club hockey for the first time in over a decade. That was worth savouring all summer long.

Hello, Europe

As English debutantes, Reading were drawn against 2024 EHL finalists Mannheimer HC in the FINAL12 phase of the ABN AMRO EuroHockey League, held at HC's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands over Easter. Taking on a seasoned side who had come within one game of winning Europe's top club prize two years earlier was, to put it mildly, a tough ask for a team experiencing the competition for the very first time. The experience of playing under the European spotlight — in front of the world's best club sides — was exactly the kind of occasion that will have made the whole squad better players. The result may not have gone our way, but turning up is the first step, and we turned up.

The Domestic Campaign

Back home, life as champions proved tricky. We entered the 2025/26 season as defending league champions and faced a tougher-looking field, with newcomers Barnes and Durham University adding to an already competitive division. The squad gave plenty of encouraging performances throughout the season, and the mid-table phase had its moments of real quality.

When it came to the crunch, though, Pool A proved unkind. Surbiton qualified for the Premier Division Finals with a 6-1 win over us and a 2-0 win over Loughborough in Pool A, while Wimbledon took the other finals spot. It meant our title defence was over. Not qualifying for the Finals as reigning Champions gave us an unwanted piece of hockey history, but as unwanted pieces of history go, it does come with the footnote: we were the reigning champions in the first place.

The Bigger Picture

Squads that win leagues often find the following season harder — the element of surprise is gone, opponents study you more carefully, and the sheer emotional effort of what came before can take time to replenish. That's not an excuse; it's sport. The 2025/26 Women's 1st XI played Premier Division hockey, competed on the European stage for the first time in years, and kept Reading's name firmly among the elite clubs in England.

The foundation is strong, the talent is there, and the memory of lifting that title at Nottingham isn't going away any time soon. If anything, this season will have made the squad hungry again — and that's a very good thing.

Bring on 2026/27. ?