Kwan Browne focused on the positives after Canterbury’s failure to reach the semi-finals of the Maxifuel Super Sixes indoor competition at Loughborough at the weekend.

The men lost three of their four games to finish seventh, with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.

Browne said: "It was a good experience. All the games went down to the final minutes.

"We played some good quality hockey against teams packed with international players - East Grinstead had four Great Britain players on their bench - and it still came down to the final two minutes.

"We are disappointed we didn’t make the top four but there are a lot of positives. We are getting better and stronger each year and next year our aim is the top four."

Mel Clewlow said EuroCanterbury Ladies "only have ourselves to blame" after missing out by just one point in the Women’s Premier Division, finishing fifth in Bristol.

Senior player Clewlow said: "We knew before the weekend that we needed three wins and it was that draw against Clifton that did for us, as well as losing to Reading in the first weekend. If we’d drawn that game we would have gone through.

"Those two games did for us and we only have ourselves to blame. I’m sick and tired of being an ‘almost’ club."