Neston Hockey at Parkgate was established in 1963, infact on 29th September, initially as a social side.  As players joined from other clubs mainly Cheshire clubs the club had its first notable success in 1972 when the Cheshire Cup came to Parkgate for the first time.  A North West League title followed in 1974 and things took off.

 

From 1977, Neston reached seven consecutive Cheshire Cup finals, winning six which is a record.  Most under the Captaincy of ex Great Britain player Geoff Poole.

 

In 1979 they were the first Northern Club to reach the HA Cup Final (Equivalent of the FA Cup in Football), under Geoff Poole's captaincy, they lost gallantly 3-1 to Slough.  In the late 70's Neston contained England players Robbie Smith and Mal Wilkinson, plus stalwarts like Cubley, Renshaw, McKeown and Manchett.

 

In 1983 Neston reached the Final of The HA Cup again and achieved revenge on Slough, winning 3-2.  Captained by Colin Cubley, the side had a strong Welsh influence in Chris Ashcroft in goal and David Peters in defence. New names like Greene, Royce and Stannard became the backbone of the side.  Steve Greene scored twice and Tony Pickthall scored the other in the HA Cup Final.

 

Neston thus qualified for The 1984 European Cup and were the only team to hold eventual winners Frankenthal from West Germany to a 1-1 draw.  In the end Neston finished 8th.

 

In 1984 Neston also won the National Inter League Title, this was before National Leagues!  We were regular winners of the North West League and so we held two National Titles.

 

In 1986, new Captain in Chris Ashcroft, brought in new blood. The three Crutchley brothers Sam, Andy and Bobby, now all North of England players and Richard Beswick, Wesencraft and Harvey, all established themselves in the team.

 

The Hockey Association announced plans for a National League in 1987/88, the first time for England to have a National League structure, previuosly the highest we could go was the North West League.  The winners of the North West League would gain automatic qualification to the 1st Division the runners up would fight it out in a play-off for places in Division 2 and The Northern Premier League.

 

Neston managed to qualify for Division 2 of The National League after a bad start in The North West League they finished stongly to get into the play-offs and finish second to Welton.

 

In 1988/89 Neston introduced more newcomers in Justin Pidcock and David Cheshire.  They had an international Coach in Hans Van't Sant, a Management team of Trevor Mathew-Jones and Fitness Coach in Ken Peers.  That first season Neston came 8th, mid table, quarter finalists in the HA Cup and won The Cheshire Cup.

 

In 1989/90 Neston had 7 Saturday Teams and Neston Recreation Centre had an Astro-turf pitch built.  All this helped to gain promotion to the 1st Division of The National League, by being runners up to St Albans, in Division 2.  We beat them in the Division 2 League Cup Final though.

 

The 1990/91 season, our first in Division 1, attracted good Players, Martyn Grimley came in fresh with his Olympic Gold Medal from 1988, Seoul. Internationals Cutter and Fox also came in and we had 1500 at Neston Rec to watch the first ever National League game at that venue, against East Grinstead, we finished in the lower end of the table.

 

The 1991/92 year was a difficult year with some of the International names leaving we finished 11th.  Relegation to Division 2 in 1992/3 and some more player losses, but we remained in Division 2 for a couple more seasons.

 

The 1994/95 season saw Neston relagated to the Northern Premier League, due to more player loss and training facilities being only at The Recreation Centre.  We couldn't put in the sessions or attract quality players needed to maintain a place in The National League.

 

We stayed in The Northern Premier League for five seasons after this and the closest we came to going back up was the 1997/98 season,  we missed the playoffs by one point. We were 2nd in The Northern Premier League, that season.