The rain clouds followed Cannock all the way to yesterday’s final against the favourites, Amsterdam. Although only a light shower and nothing like the previous days’ downpours, it did nothing to improve on a day which saw two English teams lose their final matches. At least Cannock were assured of a silver and a well deserved one at that.
Right from the start it was clear that Amsterdam were not out to flatter Cannock and yet again James Fair in the Cannock goal was in the thick of the action. It took the Dutch side eight minutes to record their first goal when their fearsome penalty corner striker Taeke Takema found the net. Despite the pressure, Cannock’s defence remained resolute and it took the Dutchmen another twenty minutes to add a second, courtesy of a field goal off the stick of Mark Neumeier. The second half saw a flurry of goals for Amsterdam, with Takema getting his second, this time from the penalty spot, followed by a corner conversion by Teun Rohof, and a goal in open play by England international Ben Hawes. Then, as if by magic, Cannock managed to arrest the slide and suddenly went through a golden patch in the last five minutes. Andrew Langlands found the net from a penalty corner and minutes later Martin Jones hit the upright with a stinging shot. Kristian Timman then scored Amsterdam’s six and final goal, but Cannock made their tally two when Andrew West scored with seconds left on the clock.
Amsterdam were a class apart but Cannock’s campaign in this competition has shown them to be more than competent to compete at this level of European hockey. (Our photograph shows veteran Cannock player, Chris Mayer, with his European Cup Winners' Cup silver medal.)
In the women’s tournament, experienced European campaigners Canterbury were also facing an Amsterdam side, but the outcome of this match was a bronze or nothing. This was the match which had been tipped to be the final, and the very lacklustre final between Club de Campo and Rot-Weiss that followed showed what the spectators were missing. Last year in Berlin, Canterbury had conceded a goal in the first few seconds of the match, and history repeated itself once more. But the two teams went into the break at one apiece thanks to a goal by Rachel Walsh, sister of England captain Kate. Unfortunately, the second half had only been underway a few minutes when Sylvia Karres scored for Amsterdam to put the score at 2-1 to the Dutch. Canterbury hung on grimly, but like their male counterparts the Amsterdam side were in a class of their own.
This is the third time I have followed Canterbury into Europe and on the two previous occasions they have been beaten in the final by a Dutch side. I have little doubt that Canterbury’s performance over that period has improved immensely, as was evidenced by their performance in the pool matches, but it just seems that the Dutch sides are getting better and better.
A report on the European Cup Winners Cup will appear in the May edition of our on-line magazine HockeyTalk, and interviews from the tournament will be in our monthly podcast, TalkHockeyRadio, which is due out on Thursday. We will also be posting photographs from the competition on our main site (plus those from the men’s EH Cup Final) over the next few days. All this can be found at our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk
