GRINSTEAD'S FATE IN THE BALANCE by Peter Savage in Vienna

The fate of East Grinstead in the EuroHockey Indoor Clubs Trophy hangs finely in the balance after the opening matches here in Vienna today

The Sussex side, bereft of Messrs Jackson and Kirkham on England duties, got off to a pedestrian start against Scottish champions Menzieshill and were two down from penalty corners in under five minutes. A Dave De Prez corner got them back into the game briefly, but with five minutes left they were 6-2 behind, their second coming from a Niall Stott corner early in the second half.

East Grinstead managed to inch their way back into the game with a flurry of goals, with two from Mark Pearn and a second from Niall Stott. Time just ran out on them and the match finished at 6-5 in favour of Menzieshill.

Apart from the opening few minutes, East Grinstead did not play that badly, as was evidenced by the number of times the clang of ball against the Scot’s metalwork was heard. One disappointing aspect of this match was the questionable standard of umpiring, a situation only mitigated by the efforts of the Spanish umpire to instil a bit of sanity into the match. You will have to dig deep and hard to find me criticising umpires, so when I say that I the umpire manager should consider not using one of the umpires for the remainder of the tournament, you can probably gauge how poor things were. My latest information is that the offending umpire is officiating at EG’s match against Partille tomorrow.

East Grinstead’s second match, against Lille, was a far more encouraging affair. Particularly noticeable was the transformation of Grinstead’s young German defender Mats Grambusch, who we had not seen at his best in the preceding match.

After Scot Ashdown opened the scoring, they went 1-2 behind briefly, but two late second half goals by Mike Holland and Niall Stott restored their lead. Two goals from Mark Pearn (pictured and my man of the match) sealed the issue, with further goals from Dave De Prez and Mike Holland providing the icing on the cake. Final score 7-3 to EG.

Later in the afternoon, Menzieshill could inexplicably only manage a 2-2d draw against the Swedes of Partille, which leaves the Pool ‘A’ table as follows:

1.Menzieshill 4 pts (+1), 2. East Grinstead 3 pts (+3), 3. Lille 3 pts (-1), 4. Partile 1 pt (-3).

This tournament operates a system of promotion and relegation pools. As a result, if Menzieshill and East Grinstead finish 1st and 2nd respectively, Menzieshill, and almost certainly one of the teams from Pool B, will go into the promotion pool with a three point advantage. The fate of both sides could well be in the hands of Lille and Partille tomorrow.