RESULTS AND TABLES FOR TODAY'S MATCHES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE AT www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk.
The pain continues for those clubs propping up the bottom end of the Men's England Hockey League Premier Division table. Bowdon went to Championship contenders Beeston, where they suffered a 4-1 defeat, despite their Nigel Croke opening the scoring after only five minutes. Hampstead & Westminster appeared to be in the driving seat when they played host to Southgate, going into the break 2-0 ahead. A second half flurry of goals from the visitors gave a final score of 3-3, but one point leaves Southgate in eighth place. University of Exeter will know their fate later when they play East Grinstead in an evening match at Saint Hill. They are currently occupying the relegation play-off spot.
Cannock, who face non-league Brighton & Hove in the Cup tomorrow, found Surbiton too much for them, going down 3-1. Reading slip one place down the table to fifth after scraping a draw at Loughborough Students.
The squabble between Brooklands MU and Sheffield Hallam at the top of the North Conference went in Brooklands' favour when the two sides met this afternoon. Brooklands' 5-4 win means that they now lead the table by one point. Barford Tigers are now five points adrift at the bottom of the table after they lost 3-2 to Doncaster and Preston drew 2-2 at home to Olton & West Warwicks.
TalkHockeyRadio was at the West Conference match between Ian Jennings' Guildford and struggling Lichfield. Lichfield got off to a cracking start with a Steven Bailey goal in the fifth minute, and for much of the first half they seemed to be dominating the match. Guildford's Jonathan Hayes put some sanity back into the scoreline with a late penalty corner conversion, and we suspect that coach Ian Jennings scorched the changing room walls with his half time chat judging by his side's second half performance, which saw Guildford emerge 4-1 winners. Lichfield remain one off the bottom and Guildford stay in fourth. Bath Buccaneers now have a four point lead after beating second place University of Birmingham.
In the East Conference both Canterbury and Old Loughtonians won today. If you were looking for a lot of goals in this division, Oxted was the place to be, where it could have been mistaken for thinking the game was Andrew Baggs versus City of Peterborough. Baggs scored all three of Oxted's goals from penalty corners in their 3-4 defeat at home.
There were four games in the Investec Women's Premier Division this afternoon. The fifth game (Reading v Olton & West Warwickshire) and Conference matches will be played tomorrow.
Today saw some significant movement in the bottom half of the Premier Division table. Lauren Penny's hat-trick at Slough against Bowdon Hightown drops Bowdon down the table from seventh to the relegation play-off place. Sally Walton had equalised for Bowdon in the 23rd minute but the match finally ended 3-1 in Slough's favour. As a result of their win, Slough move up the table to sixth, displacing Birmingham University who lost 0-2 at home to Clifton.
Sutton Coldfield's 3-1 win against struggling Cannock moves them up the table from ninth to seventh.
Canterbury and Leicester's chances of catching Reading took a knock when they could only manage a 0-0 draw. Leicester missed out on the three points after Crista Cullen failed to convert a third minute penalty stroke.
