We had harboured suspicions for a couple of seasons that
Canterbury had benefited from the disruption caused pre and post Olympics, and
their match against East Grinstead may prove to be the writing on the wall for
their future in the Premier Division.
They went down to a massive 1-9 defeat at home, with Ashley Jackson,
Mark Pearn and David Condon scoring a brace apiece, with other goals coming
from Niall Stott, Tony Wilson and Andy Piper. The win promotes EG to first
place on goal difference.
Surbiton are in second place after travelling to Sheffield
Hallam and coming away with a 1-3 win. Sharing maximum points with East
Grinstead and Surbiton is Beeston, who remain in third place after beating
Reading 4-3, despite a late revival by the Berkshire side.
Newly promoted Wimbledon picked up their first points after
winning at Cannock. Cannock share the distinction with Canterbury and Sheffield
Hallam of being the three Premiership sides on zero points.
Loughborough Students were nailed by Will Naylor, who scored
two of Hampstead & Westminster’s four goals in their 4-1 win over the
Students. H & W are in sixth place, one place behind Wimbledon.
The East Conference
table is in a state of flux after Holcombe’s match at Oxted last night had to
be abandoned due to a floodlight failure. As a result Holcombe have slipped to
third, with Southgate taking the top spot after beating newly promoted Brighton
& Hove 1-5 this afternoon. In second place is Bromley & Beckenham, who
beat St Albans 4-2. St Albans and
Brighton & Hove have still to earn a point after two matches.
In the North
Conference the table has split into the haves and have nots. Four sides are
on six points and four sides have still to earn a point. Leek and Bowdon picked up three each at the
expense of the newly promoted clubs. Leek beat West Bridgford 6-0, and Bowdon
beat Deeside Ramblers 1-2. Top of the table on goal difference is
University of Durham, who won their away match at Wakefield 0-4.
In the West
Conference, Cardiff and Met, who will be representing Wales in next month’s
EuroHockey League, are top of the table after beating University of Exeter 4-2.
They are ahead (on goal difference) of Team Bath Buccaneers, who won 2-4 away at
Isca.
TalkHockeyRadio was at the West Conference match between
Guildford and Fareham. Old hands might have trouble coming to terms with the
fact that the once great Guildford is playing in the Conferences, but on today’s
form they might have to get used to an England Hockey League without them at
all. Last season the two sides finished
at more-or-less opposite ends of the table, with Guildford in third and Fareham
eighth. Either Fareham have gained
something or Guildford have lost something during the Summer.
Typically of early season games, the two sides spent some
time sizing each other up, with each probing the other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Robin Jones opened the scoring for Fareham from a penalty corner, but their
lead was short lived. Mike Rippon scored for Guildford shortly afterwards. But
in the second half the Fareham forwards started to slice through the Guildford
defence, with goals from Danny Rawlings, Alex Boxall and Christopher
Davey. With an own goal to add to the
tally, the final score was 1-5. One has
to feel sorry for Guildford goalkeeper, Ed Burton-Brown, who was deputising for
an injured Simon Mason. The more experienced Mason might have saved a couple of
the shots, but Burton-Brown coped well with the storm and pulled off a couple
of good saves.
IMAGES FROM THIS MATCH ARE AT WWW.HOCKEYIMAGES.CO.UK.
FULL TABLES AND RESULTS ARE AVAILABLE ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE.
