There may be mixed emotions in the morning after East Grinstead celebrate their medals in the Indoor EHL today. The Sussex club dominated the Premier Division, only losing a single match - ironically the last match of the day against runners-up Old Loughtonians. Grinstead have European ambitions and are anxious to go on to qualify for European indoor club competition by winning the national championships at the NIA in a fortnight’s time. But looking down the table, there must be concern caused by the poor performance of Canterbury, who finished one off the relegation zone. Canterbury are England’s representatives in the European Indoor Club Championships in Perth next month. A poor result in that very tough competition could result in relegation to the ‘B’ tournament from which East Grinstead won promotion in Brussels last year. If there is any side deserving of the ‘Sick as a Parrot’ award, it must be Beeston, who were in second place when play started this morning. Playing in the first match of the day they went down 5-3 to Bournville, with Bournville’s goals coming from Hardeep Jawanda (3) and Chris Graham (2). In their second match they lost to by the same margin to Loughborough Students, giving the Students the points they needed to haul themselves into a place in the finals in Birmingham. Reading, who have rather gone off the boil as an indoor side, had a particularly successful day, beating Robinsons 5-2 and Canterbury 14-1. Alas, this was not enough to secure them a place at the NIA.
Whilst there was some high scoring at the Glades in the Men’s Premier, the goal tally was of much more modest proportions further south at Croydon in the Women’s Premier. Slough had lost only one match before today, that against Bowdon Hightown yesterday, and won the title with a three point margin with wins over Ipswich (4-2) and Sutton Coldfield (6-1). Beneath them things were a little more crowded. Olton and Chelmsford found themselves in what was effectively a play-off for fourth place. Goals from Denise Marston-Smith, Kerry Moor and Jenny Pritchard gave Olton the 3-1 win. Bowdon made surprisingly hard work beating relegated Sevenoaks (2-0) and an out-of-form Canterbury (4-3), but finished second. Ipswich came back from their defeat against Slough with a 4-1 win against Sutton Coldfield. Sutton, who were among the finalists at the NIA last year, are relegated. Our photograph shows Slough’s skipper, Lynette Smith, receiving the winner’s plate from Tournament Director, Jo Pennycook.
TRAINING MATCH IN SPAIN
Great Britain continued their series against Spain with a 2-2 draw in Terressa. GB went into the second half with a two-goal lead, with goals from Lucilla Wright and Jo Ellis. A GB victory looked in the bag until Silvia Munoz struck twice in the last ten minutes.
TRI NATIONS TOURNAMENT
Richard Mantell returned from injury to resume his role as principal penalty corner striker for Great Britain. Playing against Canada in a three nations’ tournament in Durban, Jonty Clarke opened the scoring for GB with a field goal in the 23rd minute. Mantell found the net early in the second half but the Canadians pulled one back from a goal by Ranjeev Deol. Mantell was on target twice more and in the closing seconds of the match Barry Middleton made Britain’s total five. Final score 5-1.
