England Hockey League
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| Sport | Hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2003 |
| No. of teams | 80 |
| Country | England |
| Official website | www |
The England Hockey League (EHL) is the top tier of the national field hockey league system in England, and is run by England Hockey. The men's league is known as the Men's Hockey League, and the women's league is sponsored by Investec and is known as the Investec Women's Hockey League.
The EHL was founded in 2003. The league structure was altered for the 2008/2009 season with the aim of promoting appropriate competition for the teams involved whilst reducing the overheads incurred by teams having to travel long distances. Previously there was a national Premier and national Division One league, which had players fed into it by a North league and South league. There is now only one Premier Division, which is fed by three "Conference" leagues, split into North, West and East regions.
The EHL takes new teams into the National North/West/East leagues from five separately run regional hockey associations: East, Midlands, North, South and West. These associations run a multiple-division league structure of their own, and are in turn fed by teams from county or sub-regional hockey associations or leagues. For example, the Yorkshire Hockey Association runs 11 divisions, and those promoted out of the top Division will be received into the lower divisions of the North Hockey Association. Those promoted from the North Hockey Association's top league will be entered into the EHL Conference North league, from which they can gain promotion to the EHL Premier league.
The premier competition for men was the National Inter League Tournament which started in the 1974–75 season, this was replaced by the National League in the 1988–89 season and it is now the run by England Hockey. The premier women's competition was the National League introduced in the 1989–90 season and now run by England Hockey. A Men's and Women's Cup has taken place in addition to the League competitions; both were originally called the National Clubs Championship. The Men's Cup was inaugurated in the 1971-72 season and the women's in the 1977-78 season.
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