This season is David’s 3rd with the club. The Whitley Bay native has captained the side in consecutive years while helping them to a playoff title to close out 2010-2011 and last season’s league and cup ‘double’. He led the team in assists with 60 while adding 20 goals for an 80 point haul that put him 2nd on the club charts. David arrived in Surrey in September 2010 after 7 consecutive years with the Newcastle Vipers where he tallied 305 points over a 291 game span. His best season at Tyneside was 2007-2008 when he posted a 17 goal, 57 point campaign. After spending much of his early senior years with Whitley Warriors, he split 1995-96 between the Newcastle Warriors and Sheffield Steelers. He remained with the Steelers during the inauguration of the now defunct Superleague, playing more than 200 games while collecting 133 points. His stay in Sheffield was a successful one, winning no less than 10 trophies over a 5 year run culminating in 2000-2001, his final season in Yorkshire, when he led the team in scoring on the way to the ‘Grand Slam’ as part of the Superleague, Playoff, B & H Cup and ISL Challenge Cup winning side. That success earned him a contract in mainland Europe with Swedish Elite League outfit Djurgardens with whom he iced a 45 game schedule and posted 9 goals and 20 points. His travels the following year took him to Switzerland with Sierre as well as stints with Manchester Storm and Newcastle Vipers back on UK soil before joining the latter for his longest single team term beginning in 2003-2004. During that season he helped lead the Vipers to the Findus Cup championship then added a Playoff title with the same team to finish 2005-2006. Internationally, including 4 games during his most recent appearance at the 2012 world event, Longstaff has 90 GB caps, appearing in World Championship play for 11 consecutive seasons from 1994 through 2004. He re-joined the national programme again in 2007 and 2008 before adding 3 games during the Olympic Qualification tournament in 2009; an international event in which he played 6 other games between 1995 and 1996. He has 29 goals and nearly 70 points as one of the country’s all-time leading national team members.
