Further evidence was provided this afternoon of the depth of character of current Men’s Premier Division leaders, Cannock. Having gone down to a late first half goal by East Grinstead’s German international, Martin Haner, Cannock recovered and Richard Lane found the net twice in under a minute. Cannock have now opened up some space between themselves and the pack as a result of this win. East Grinstead’s defeat means that they slip to third behind Reading, who gave Bowdon a lesson in hockey with a 5-2 win at home. Southgate earned their first point of the season in a 2-2 draw against Loughborough Students, with the Students twice coming from behind. Surbiton are finding the season a difficult one, despite a respectable goal scoring rate, as was demonstrated by their match against Hampstead and Westminster. Surbiton twice had a one goal lead wiped out and then went behind to a Mark Little goal in the second half. Saviour of the day was Andy Cornick, who equalised for Surbiton in the dying seconds. Final score 4-4.
One match that caught our eye was the Men’s Conference East match between Kent rivals, Canterbury and Holcombe, not least because of the presence of ex Canterbury and England international Dave Matthews in the Holcombe side. Canterbury were dumped out of the Premier Division after struggling for a few seasons but they were on maximum points at the start of play afternoon. Canterbury went into the second half with a two goal advantage, courtesy of Lloyd Norris-Jones, but three goals in five minutes from Dave Matthews (PS), Liam Foster and Samuel Lund, put Canterbury on the back foot until Matt Harper equalised. Late goals from Michael Farrer and Lloyd Norris-Jones gave Canterbury the 5-3 win and gives Canterbury an impressive 5 point lead.
One of the expected consequences of compressing the EHL down into two layers was the possibility of some mismatches between sides. This was in evidence today as two teams nearly found themselves on the receiving end of double figure scores. In the Men’s West Conference it was Whitchurch who found themselves on the receiving end of such an onslaught when they visited Team Bath Buccaneers. James Kellock (2), Max Ruxton, Phillip Ball, Lewis Prosser, William Matthews (2), James Grogan and Luke Gupta were all on the scoresheet there, with no reply from Whitchurch. Ipswich did slightly better at home to Indian Gymkhana in the East Conference, briefly managing to match their visitors scoring rate until, at 2-2 the floodgates opened. The scorers for Indian Gym were Jagdeep Gill (3), Tejinder Hanspal (4), Pravidner Hanspal and Laveen Jandu. Final score there, 3-9.
Full league tables will be available on our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk from tomorrow (Monday)
