The Southgate Hockey Centre was not a good place for the sentimental this afternoon. Two great clubs battled it out in the hope that a win would lift them off the bottom of the Men’s Slazenger EHL Premier Division. Southgate held a slight psychological edge over Havant, having won one match this season and drawn another, but the Hampshire club were sitting at the bottom of the table with only two draws to their credit. The game started badly for Havant, with Paul Rabe being binned within two minutes, the first of two yellow cards he was shown. The match itself settled down to fairly mundane stuff and the game reached the break at 0-0. A flurry of activity early in the second half brought Southgate two goals in two minutes, the first from Dan Shingles and the second from Rick Gay. The home side then started to play like a team that were accustomed to winning every week but the euphoria of being two ahead was short lived. Havant were running out of time to grab some points and it was evident from the way they upped the pace as the final whistle approached. It brought its reward. Southgate were shattered when Havant’s Egyptian star, Ahmed Ezz Mohamed banged home two penalty corners in the dying minutes of the match. Final score 2-2 and a modest tally of one point each, which will not help either side in their struggled to lift them off the bottom.
Neither Southgate nor Havant were helped by proceedings at Loughborough, where the Students won their first match of the season. Bowdon had gone one ahead through a goal by Ali Brogdon but Loughborough Students’ Nick Catlin soon equalised. An early second half goal by James Osborn gave the Students the 2-1 win. Beeston’s match at home to Hampstead and Westminster echoed proceedings at Southgate, as the hosts were 2-0 up but finished the match at 2-2. Beeston’s scorers were Jamie Parker and Adam Dixon, whilst the scorers for Hampstead were Will Naylor and Simon Lanyon. Surbiton recorded their fifth draw of the season when they visited East Grinstead – the score 0-0 there - but the match that everyone was hanging on the result of was the game between Cannock and Reading. This morning both teams were leading the table on 20 points, with Cannock having the better goal difference. Reading took an early lead through Chris Cargo but, in a golden ten minute period, Richard Lane scored, followed by two from Gareth Andrew. Andy Watts pulled one back for Reading but the match ended 3-2 in Cannock’s favour.
As a result of today’s matches there is no change in the Premiership table.
In the East Conference, Canterbury relinquished their lead by going down 3-2 to Indian Gymkhana. Both teams are on 19 points and a goal difference of 13 and they are separated by a two goal margin of goals scored. In the North none of the three leaders – Belper, University of Durham and Brooklands MU – played this afternoon due to frozen pitches. In the West, Old Georgians could only draw against Guildford, and University of Exeter resume the lead after their 4-2 win over Stourport.
