Beeston succumbed to the might of UHC Hamburg in the first of the quarter finals this afternoon.
Although they came out fighting and made a promising start, Beeston’s woes began in the ninth minute when a slip in defence by Alistair Wilson gifted the ball to Hamburg allowing Marco Miltkau to fire a shot at goal which found its target. Minutes later their No. 16 (Dieter Linnekogel) scythed through Beeston’s defence and passed the ball to Ricardo Nevado who sent it into the net putting the score at 0-2. A penalty corner conversion by Stephen Lawrence brought Beeston back into contention.
In the second quarter Beeston made another good start putting pressure on Hamburg from the outset, but again Ricardo Nevado’s shot found the goal, only to be disallowed after a video appeal by Beeston. The score remained at 1-2 until the 22nd minute when Florian Fuchs made it 1-3, and he struck again in the 33rd minute to extend Hamburg’s lead to 1-4 at half time.
Beeston were unable to convert a penalty corner in the third quarter, and early in the fourth an over-enthusiastic Steven Lawrence received a yellow card for a tackle which gave Hamburg a penalty corner; Jan Simon duly converted this to make it 1-5. Jonas Furste and Marco Miltkau added two more field goals to bring the final score to 1-7. Beeston played with great determination and energy but Hamburg proved more powerful on the day.
The second quarter final was a battle between Amsterdam and Bloemendaal, with Amsterdam winning 3-2. The match promised a lot, but delivered little. Amsterdam’s scorers were Taeke Taekema (PC), Mirco Pruyser (FG) and Teun Rohof, with Bloemendaal’s Wouter Jolie and Olmer Meijer converting penalty corners.
The two remaining quarter finals (KHC Dragons v Reading and Rotterdam v East Grinstead) will be played tomorrow (Monday 9th April).
