Picture: East Grinstead celebrate Gareth Carr's penalty corner conversion.Any English interest disappeared at the EuroHockey League Round Two in Rotterdam today when all three English clubs were eliminated.
It was a little unfortunate that Beeston, Reading and East Grinstead found themselves playing one after the other in cab-rank style on the same day, but there was a bright side to what was an otherwise dismal one for the English teams.
Beeston needed to be early risers, starting their match at 09:30 in the morning, and unfortunately the early start seemed to impact on their play. Their opponents were Belgian side Leuven, who they had trounced in Round One in Paris in the Autumn. Of all the English sides, Beeston probably had the weakest opponents. Unfortunately Beeston put in the weakest performance.
A generally dull first half was livened up by a 28th minute penalty conversion by Beeston's Andrew Monte, and a bit of controversy on the stroke of half-time. Pressing for a second goal in their opponent's circle, Beeston found themselves torn between making a video appeal for an infringement or running back to defend a Leuven breakaway. They opted for the latter – if an appeal had been made play would have been stopped – and the half time hooter sounded before they could lodge the request. A lesson learnt there for the future.
Whether that unsettled Beeston or not, it is hard to say, but they let the match run away from them in the second half, finally losing it 3-1.
Next up was Reading, who found themselves in a re-match of last season's Round Two, playing RC Polo de Barcelona. Their last meeting was settled on a penalty stroke in Reading's favour. This year it was Barcelona's turn to have the stroke, with recent signing Matthias Witthaus stepping up to give the Spanish the lead in the 19th minute.
This season's match bore many of the hallmarks of last season's meet, with Barcelona having the lion's share of the possession but unable to penetrate some gritty Reading defending. Nick Brothers proved what a worthy successor he is to Simon Mason in the Reading goal with some outstanding work.
It was a transformed Reading that came out for the second half, determined to get back into the match and it was very much against the general run of play that Paul Quemada scored Barcelona's second. Reading kept pressing and eventually Jonty Clarke was rewarded from a penalty corner. The alert may have noticed that all three goals were scored by players who have recently returned from the World Cup, where they played for three different nations.
The match finally ended 2-1 to Barcelona, but the Reading boys had put up a good fight.
East Grinstead have shown every sign of late of taking over the mantle from Reading of being the Euro-experts, and they proved it again today against Asterdam.
EG had clearly done their homework on Amsterdam and unsettled their opponents several times by slinging the ball down the length of the pitch in an attempt to stretch them in the midfield. This, matched with some good off-the-ball work, eventually brought its reward with a 10th minute penalty corner scored by South African international, Gareth Carr.
'Grinstead held onto their lead until the 44th minute when they conceded a penalty corner, a daunting prospect when your opponents have Taeke Taekema playing for them. At the second attempt Taekema put a relatively soft shot, by his standards, low into the net to equalise.
Amsterdam held onto their lead for less than five minutes, when Carr stepped up to score from a penalty stroke resulting from a video appeal for a back stick. The next 22 minutes were inevitably going to be the longest in the history of hockey, but it took less than ninety seconds for East Grinstead have victory snatched away from them. Tired legs started to leave holes in their defence, and they were punished with goals from Verga and Prins in the 55th and 56th minute respectively.
The final score was 3-2 to Amsterdam, but EG had played well and compliments flowed from all directions, not least from their opponents.
IN THE WOMEN'S EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS CUP IN BERLIN, only one English team was in action today. Olton and West Warwicks beat Volga Telecom 1-0. The other English side, Bowdon Hightown, play tomorrow.
