Snow caused chaos in the Slazenger Men’s EHL Premier Division this afternoon, with over half the matches being postponed. However, the league organisers can probably count themselves lucky that no promotion or relegation issues seem to have been effected. The snow which swept across the South of England left Beeston’s ground at Nottingham bathed in sunshine. Unfortunately, things were no so bright for their opponents, East Grinstead, who were unable to travel because of the weather. The two other postponed matches involved southern clubs, with the meetings between Havant and Reading, and Surbiton and Hampstead & Westminster, being snowed off. Relegated Canterbury found their season ending on an unhappy note when they travelled north to Bowdon and lost 5-2, Bowdon’s goals coming from David Egerton, Ian Wilson and Saxon Hill, plus two penalty strokes from Simon Egerton. Craig Boyne and Aaron Hudson were the scorers for Canterbury. Cannock and Loughborough Students are only one place apart in the table but the Student’s suffered an 8-3 hammering when they entertained Cannock. Andrew Langlands (2), Gareth Andrew, Richard Lane (2), Martin Jones, Matthew Taylor and Andrew West were on target for the visitors. Dave Becket, Peter Dobson and James Blackwell scored for the Students. Remarkably, Division One escaped the worst of the weather. The top of the table had been become very tight, with no less than four clubs in contention for a play-off place. A 2-2 draw between Old Loughtonians and promoted Southgate was the worst possible result for the Essex side, who this morning had been occupying the play-off slot. Third placed Brooklands moved ahead of them by beating Guildford 4-1 and so go into next weekends play-offs at Chelmsford, where they will meet Hampstead and Westminster. Of the other teams in contention, Old Georgians beat Chelmsford 3-2, b but Bath Buccaneers went down 4-2 to Bournville.
The final positions at the top of Division One are: 1. Southgate, 2. Brooklands, 3. Old Loughtonians 4. Old Georgians.
One of the other play-off places that was still in contention was at the bottom of the National South Division, where two matches were cancelled because of snow. Fortunately for the league organisers, but unfortunately for Robinsons, the match between Robinsons and Holcombe went ahead, with Holcombe coming out the 6-1 winners. Robinson’s will now have to play Kingston-upon-Hull from the National North in the play offs next weekend.
Our photograph shows the view from the TalkHockeyRadio studios at mid-day today.
Next weekends play-offs at Chelmsford:
Saturday:
12:00 (W) Sheffield Hallam v Horsham
14:00 (M) Kingston upon Hull v Robinsons
16:00 (M) Brooklands MU v Hampstead & Westminster
16:00 (W) Sunderland v Chelmsford
Sunday:
10:00 (W) Sheffield Hallam v Horsham
12:15 (M) Kingston upon Hull v Robinsons
14:30 (W) 16:00 (W) Sunderland v Chelmsford
16:45 (M) Brooklands MU v Hampstead & Westminster
Snow caused chaos in the Slazenger Men’s EHL Premier Division this afternoon, with over half the matches being postponed. However, the league organisers can probably count themselves lucky that no promotion or relegation issues seem to have been effected. The snow which swept across the South of England left Beeston’s ground at 