When TalkHockeyRadio chooses which matches to go to, it is a matter of pot luck what we find. But we definitely struck gold this afternoon at Sugden Road to watch Surbiton play Beeston, in what surely must have been the match of the day.
The game started fairly routinely. A fair bit of action, but nothing special, saw the sides go into the break with the home team holding onto a slim lead. But things really started to hot up in the last 20 minutes when Phil Messent scored to make it 3-0.
Tim Pinnock scored his second to increase the lead, and Patrick Schmidt's 58th minute goal for Beeston looked as if it was going to be little more than a consolation. But Schmidt found the net again three minutes later, followed swiftly by a goal from Carl Smith. Surbiton were rocked on their heals when Tim Whiteman scored Beeston's fourth to equalise. That's four goals in seven minutes if you've lost track.
Unfortunately the fairy tale ending for Beeston was not to be. We've described Tim Pinnock as 'dependable' in the past, and dependable he was again today. His 69th minute penalty corner conversion for Surbiton was a heartbreaker for Beeston, but you've got to hand it to the visitors. They gave us a memorable match with nine quality goals from both sides.
Beeston's defeat means that they slip down the table to third, partly due to Cannock recording their sixth win of the season, 2-1 against Hampstead & Westminster, to move up to second.
Loughborough Students took an early lead at home to bottom placed Bowdon and finished the match 4-2. This moves the Students one place further away from the relegation zone into sixth. Reading keep up their charge to stay in the top five with a 4-2 win over University of Exeter.
The match between East Grinstead and Southgate was played last night and resulted in a surprise 0-0 draw. The one point for Southgate still leaves them perilously close to the relegation zone, with only three points separating them and Bowdon.
Results and table from all today's matches can be found on our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk.
