STOURPORT RETURN TO BASE by Peter Savage at Fareham, plus round-up of today’s EHL results.

Image: Fareham's Craig Peel (right) celebrates his side's 36th minute goal against Strouport. [Photo: HockeyImages.co.uk]

Men's Premiership leaders East Grinstead are not having a good time as they run in to the final matches of the season. With a gap of five points between them and second placed Beeston, and with only three matches left, they cannot afford to slip up at this late stage. Only one win out of their last four games – they beat Beeston 5-1 yesterday evening – they suffered their first defeat of the season this afternoon at the hands of Reading.

Beeston put yesterday's setback behind them to thrash Brooklands MU 6-2, and Surbiton kept in touch with the leaders with a 4-1 win at home to Canterbury.

TalkHockeyRadio decided to go and find out what was happening in the lower reaches of the England Hockey League, where the games could be every bit as edgy as the elite sides. Where better to go than the West Conference match between Fareham and Stourport. Stourport has been occupying bottom place for most of the season, with Fareham taking over last weekend. In the opening encounters of the game it was not hard to see why both sides are holding up the table, with an absence of imagination and confidence taking away any spectator appeal. Things changed dramatically when Craig Peel opened the scoring from a penalty corner within 60 seconds of the break, with Peel scoring a second five minutes later. Phil Lashford replied for Stourport soon after, but that was the end of their comeback. Some X-rated tackling saw two Stourport players sharing the naughty seat, which opened the door for further Fareham assaults. Goals from Ben Hibberd and John Grice meant that the game ended 4-1, and Fareham move back into ninth place. However, both sides will have to play a lot better to survive at this level.

At the top of the West table, University of Exeter continue to lead, being chased closely by Bath Buccaneers.

In the East Conference the top three club s maintain their lead, with table toppers Southgate putting seven past Indian Gymkhana for a reply of one. In the North things did not go well for the leading clubs this afternoon. University of Durham could only draw away at struggling Barford Tigers, whilst Doncaster were beaten by Sheffield Hallam. The top three places remain unchanged, but only one point separates the Doncaster Uni from third place Sheffield Hallam.

Results and tables for Sunday 6 March 2011:

Men's Premier Division

Beeston		(2)		6	-	2		(1)		Brooklands MU
Adam Dixon 18 - PC Martin Scanlon 29 - F Matthew Taylor 45 - F Alistair Wilson 51 - F Chris Gregg 53 - F Stephen Wood 63 - F										David Seddon 22 - PC Charlie Brooke 70 - F
Bowdon		(1)		2	-	2		(2)		Hampstead and Westminster
Nigel Croke 21 - F Ali Brogdon 46 - F										Ian Roberts 10 - F Kieran Roche 29 - PC
Cannock		(0)		0	-	2		(2)		Loughborough Students
										Owain Dolan Gray 17 - F Chris Griffiths 25 - F
Reading		(1)		3	-	2		(0)		East Grinstead
Richard Mantell 27 40 45 - PC PC PC										Gareth Carr 42 - PC Glenn Kirkham 60 - PC
Surbiton		(0)		4	-	1		(0)		Canterbury
Tim Pinnock 41 - PS Callum Milne 49 - F Richard Alexander 50 - F James Tindall 57 - F										Ross Gilham-Jones 59 - PC

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	East Grinstead	15	11	3	1	63	22	41	36
2	Beeston	15	10	1	4	39	25	14	31
3	Surbiton	15	9	1	5	33	30	3	28
4	Reading	15	7	2	6	39	32	7	23
5	Loughborough Students	15	7	1	7	36	37	-1	22
6	Hampstead and Westminster	15	6	2	7	29	33	-4	20
7	Bowdon	15	5	5	5	26	30	-4	20
8	Cannock	15	3	5	7	26	40	-14	14
9	Brooklands MU	15	3	2	10	17	37	-20	11
10	Canterbury	15	1	4	10	28	50	-22	7

Men's Conference East

Southgate		(4)		7	-	2		(1)		Indian Gymkhana
Thaddeus Rivett 9 - F Andrew Westbrook 14 - PC Johannes Kloess 31 58 - PC F Dan Shingles 35 - PS Robert Schilling 56 - PC Adam Wilson 67 - PC										Tejinder Hanspal 17 - F Rafael Lopez Jimenez 46 - F
Sevenoaks		(0)		1	-	3		(1)		Holcombe
Robert Hemingway 53 - PC										Hardeep Singh Jawanda 36 55 - PC F David Mathews 52 - PC
Old Loughtonians		(1)		5	-	0		(0)		Harleston Magpies
Alex Jennings 28 44 65 - PC F PC Oliver Didham 43 - F James Stedman 61 - F
St. Albans		(2)		4	-	3		(2)		Bromley and Beckenham
Ben Apperly 15 52 59 - F PC PC Tom Roberts 34 - F										Peter Dobson 9 - F Alan Butt 35 65 - F F
Wimbledon		(2)		3	-	5		(3)		Oxted
Simon Lanyon 15 - PC Sam Pike 26 45 - F F										Craig Carolan 20 - PC Jonathan Wilkes-Green 31 43 - F F Andrew Baggs 34 - F Andrew Medcalf 40 - F

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Southgate	15	10	3	2	59	24	35	33
2	Holcombe	15	9	3	3	34	20	14	30
3	Old Loughtonians	15	9	2	4	46	26	20	29
4	Indian Gymkhana	14	7	1	6	36	38	-2	22
5	Bromley and Beckenham	14	7	0	7	48	44	4	21
6	Harleston Magpies	15	6	1	8	36	37	-1	19
7	Oxted	15	6	0	9	35	51	-16	18
8	Wimbledon	15	4	4	7	34	38	-4	16
9	St. Albans	15	4	2	9	29	46	-17	14
10	Sevenoaks	15	4	0	11	28	61	-33	12

Men's Conference North

Barford Tigers		(2)		3	-	3		(2)		University of Durham
Gurcharan Singh 4 - PC Jesmeet Singh Notay 29 - PC Sukhvinderjeet Sihota 44 - F										Paddy Harman 18 - F Mark Galloway 33 - F Daniel Coultas 58 - PC
Belper		(2)		5	-	3		(3)		Leek
Sam McCambridge 18 65 - F F David Ebbage 35 - F Ben Inshaw 42 - F Luke Davies 60 - PS										Daniel O'Neill 1 8 - F F Scott Cordon 5 - F 60min, Paul Nixon red card
Ben Rhydding		(0)		1	-	2		(1)		Harborne
Luke Lambert 39 - F										Patrick Longson 19 - PC Simon Mccollum 44 - PC
Deeside Ramblers		(3)		4	-	2		(1)		Olton & West Warwicks
Imran Rasool 12 - F Ali Ghazanfar 17 32 - PC F Ibrar Latif 65 - PS										Angus Grieve 7 - F Daniel Sulway 67 - PS
Sheffield Hallam Civica		(2)		3	-	0		(0)		Doncaster
Alex Humphries 16 - F Will Hearne 20 - F Tristan Gilbody 51 - F

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	University of Durham	15	9	3	3	38	19	19	30
2	Doncaster	15	10	0	5	47	29	18	30
3	Sheffield Hallam Civica	15	9	2	4	54	25	29	29
4	Leek	15	8	2	5	39	29	10	26
5	Olton & West Warwicks	15	7	4	4	39	37	2	25
6	Deeside Ramblers	15	6	4	5	39	45	-6	22
7	Belper	15	6	0	9	37	40	-3	18
8	Harborne	15	4	3	8	25	39	-14	15
9	Barford Tigers	15	3	4	8	30	48	-18	13
10	Ben Rhydding	15	1	2	12	22	59	-37	5

Men's Conference West

Cheltenham		(1)		1	-	5		(1)		Havant
Alex Hay 18 - F										Andrew Pett 30 70 - F F Jon Smedley 41 69 - PC PC Pere Arch Morera 47 - F
Fareham		(0)		4	-	1		(0)		Stourport
Craig Peel 36 41 - PC PC Ben Hibberd 49 - F John Grice 60 - PC										Phil Lashford 42 - F
Guildford		(1)		3	-	1		(1)		Bournville
Daniel Emery 4 49 - PC PC Richard Julian 64 - F										Harry Rowland 35 - F
Team Bath Buccaneers		(1)		3	-	1		(0)		University of Birmingham
Phillip Ball 4 - PC Matt Ruxton 42 - PC Shaun Matthews 65 - F										Richard Marshall 62 - PC
Whitchurch		(0)		0	-	4		(3)		University of Exeter
										Ian Haley 15 - F Gareth Davies 20 - F James Royce 35 49 - F PC

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	University of Exeter	15	13	1	1	58	16	42	40
2	Team Bath Buccaneers	15	12	2	1	49	28	21	38
3	Guildford	15	6	6	3	27	18	9	24
4	University of Birmingham	15	6	1	8	34	35	-1	19
5	Havant	15	4	7	4	35	37	-2	19
6	Cheltenham	15	6	1	8	37	47	-10	19
7	Whitchurch	15	4	4	7	28	36	-8	16
8	Bournville	15	4	2	9	34	46	-12	14
9	Fareham	15	3	2	10	31	42	-11	11
10	Stourport	15	2	4	9	24	52	-28	10

Women's Conference North

Wakefield Bradford		(0)		1	-	1		(1)		Beeston
Heather Stafford 70 - PS										Sophie Robinson 10 - F

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Sutton Coldfield	15	13	0	2	71	17	54	39
2	Loughborough Students LHC	15	12	1	2	46	10	36	37
3	Sunderland Ladies	15	10	1	4	37	26	11	31
4	Wakefield Bradford	15	9	2	4	37	25	12	29
5	University of Durham	15	8	4	3	41	18	23	28
6	Doncaster	15	4	5	6	29	37	-8	17
7	Springfields UCLAN	15	3	2	10	22	55	-33	11
8	Beeston	15	2	2	11	20	35	-15	8
9	Belper	15	2	2	11	18	45	-27	8
10	Aldridge & Walsall	15	1	3	11	10	63	-53	6