History
Kingston Diamonds were founded in 1989 and started playing in Division One North. It took seven seasons before the Diamonds won their first trophy as they clinched the Div 1 North Championship and won the play-offs to become the British Division One Champions. Although the Diamonds had clinched the Championship they could not manage the extra step of promotion to the Premier League losing out 1-0 to Basingstoke in the play-off
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1998 – 1999 season saw the Diamonds as North Division One Champions again and also the British Division One Champions defeating Cardiff Comets 1 -0 in the final. Once again the Diamonds slipped up at the promotion stage, after beating Cardiff 7-0 in the semi-final for promotion they lost out to Nottingham Vipers 7-4 in the final game.
For a third season in a row the Diamonds won both the Division One North and British Division One Championships in 1999 – 2000, they defeated Billingham 2-1 in the Championship final.
With the expansion of the Premier League in 2000 – 2001 to 9 teams both the Division One North and South Champions were promoted, this saw both the Diamonds and Cardiff in the top league.
To date the Diamonds have been in the Premier League for 9 years and have had some good finishes in the top flight, their best to date was in 2003 – 2004 when they finished 4th in the league and made the end of season play-offs. After a close 3 -2 defeat to Premier Champions Sunderland Scorpions in the Semi-Final the Diamonds lost their 3rd / 4th place play off to Slough Phantoms 4-2, Slough had finished 2nd in the league so the result was a good performance from the Diamonds.
Since then the Diamonds have finished just outside of the play-offs but are improving all the time and will be pushing for a top 4 finish in the 2009 – 2010 season
Other honours for the Diamonds include Knock-out Cup Winners 2004, defeating Solihull Vixens 4-3 after a penalty shoot-out.
Knock-out cup semi finalists 2003 & 2006
Knock-out cup quarter finalists 2005
In 2003 & 2004 the Diamonds travelled to Europe, 2003 saw the Diamonds take on the Belgium National Team in a two game series, game one was in Leuven, home of Stella Artois, The Diamonds fought hard and won the game 5-4. Game two was a 5 – 3 victory for the Belgium team.
2004 saw the Diamonds return to Leuven to face the Belgium National Team, this time the Diamonds lost a close game. During this trip the Diamonds also played the Dutch National Team in Eindhoven on their outdoor rink, this was a great opportunity for the Diamonds but the score was a little one sided as it ended 13-2 to the Dutch.
2005 saw the Diamonds travel to Estonia to compete for the Dreamland Cup which they narrowly missed out on losing to an American College team in the final.
2006 the Diamonds were on their travels again, this time going North to Iceland, this time the Diamonds won the tournament and brought home the Iceladair Cup.
In 2007 the Diamonds formed an U16’s Girls Team after an age rule change by the E.I.H.A.. The Junior Diamonds went on to win the North U16’s League and after defeating Bracknell Ice Bees in the play-off final 5-2, they also won the British U16’s Trophy.
2008-2009 saw the Junior Diamonds defend their North U16’s title but on this occasion they could not repeat the double, after losing out to Bracknell 3-2 in the play-off final.
To date Kingston have had 115 players play in a Diamonds shirt, in either the Premier, Division One, U16’s Leagues as well as several cup competitions and challenge games.
We have several players that have been with us for awhile. Dawn Dickinson remains the player, still playing, who has played the most games, at present she is on 332 games.
Dawn is followed by Sophie Lawton, 246 games, Kirsty Brown, 148 games and Natalie Daives 140 games.
Top points to date go to Sophie Lawton 317 points, followed by Natalie Davies 195 points.
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