The evening match between Bowdon and Beeston re-shuffles the pack at the top of the Men’s Premiership. In the best traditions of Beeston, they went into the break with a two goal lead courtesy of Mohammed Nadeen (penalty stroke) and Adam Dixon, but squandered their lead in the second half when Bowdon’s Michael Hoare and Simon Egerton (penalty stroke) put the sides on equal terms. Jamie Parker put Beeston back into the lead with 12 minutes remaining but two minutes later the umpire was pointing to Beeston’s penalty spot again, and Michael Hoare stepped up to make it 3-3. The decider came with six minutes remaining, again by Mohammed Nadeem from the penalty spot. Final score 4-3 in Beeston’s favour, but four of the seven goals coming from penalty strokes? Perhaps not a record but hardly an everyday achievement.
Susan Edghill was at the Southgate Hockey Centre for TalkHockeyRadio and sends this report on the match between Championship contenders Cannock and bottom-of-the-table Southgate.
This was a game that had two sides fighting for the points for very different reasons. Southgate took the lead early in the game with a goal from Joel Evans and it wasn’t until half way through the first half that Cannock won a penalty corner and Will Pearce levelled the score. Two superb saves from England goalkeeper James Fair at penalty corners, as Southgate pressed forward, kept the score level at half time.
In the second half Cannock showed their quality, but also their youth. It was left to a superb run by Hardeep ‘Harry’ Jawanda to force yet another penalty corner, and a second goal by Will Pearce, to put them 2-1 up. Cannock had a lot of play but their lack of experience showed on occasions when they gave the ball away too easily. Southgate pressed hard for the equaliser but it was all too little too late and if their finishing had been a little better Cannock could have been 3 or 4 up.
After retiring from international hockey as the highest capped player for Wales with 153 caps, coach Paul Edwards took over at Cannock at the beginning of this season. He spent 18 years playing at Cannock, “coming back home” as he put it after just one season coaching at Olton. After the match he said “They are a young team. Nobody expected us to lead early in the season. In 12 months time they will be even better”.
As a result of the evening fixture at Bowdon, Reading slip down to fourth whilst Beeston step up to third. However, only four points separate the top five and, with three matches left to play, a place in Europe (top three teams) and the Championship are up for grabs by any of the five.
SLAZENGER ENGLAND HOCKEY LEAGUE TABLE: 1. East Grinstead 32 pts (+20), 2. Cannock 31 pts (+21), 3. Beeston 30 pts (+18), 4. Reading 29 pts (+19), 5. Surbiton 28 pts (+13), 6. Loughborough Students 18 pts (-2), 7. Bowdon 14 pts (-13), 8. Hampstead & Westminster 10 pts (-19), 9. Havant 9 pts (-22), 10. Southgate 5 pts (-35).
