CANTERBURY IN SURPRISE WIN AGAINST SURBITON. A round up of today's England Hockey League matches.

TalkHockeyRadio is away for the weekend in Lille for the EuroHockey League, but there have been some surprise results back home in the domestic leagues.

Both the NOW:Pensions Men’s League and the Investec Women’s Leagues have been in action today.  One match that caught our eye was the men’s game at Canterbury.  Canterbury have had an up and down season so far, but today was definitely an up as they lead Surbiton 5-0 until the dying minutes, when Matt Daly scored a late consolation goal. Canterbury has to thank Liam Foster for a hat trick which gave them a 5-1 win, their third victory of the season.

Beeston stay top of the Premiership with a 3-6 away win at Hampstead & Westminster, with all three of the home team’s goals coming in the dying minutes. 

It was a bad day for strugglers Loughborough Students and Cannock. The Students stay in bottom place after losing 1-2 at home to Wimbledon, whilst Cannock suffered a 4-2 defeat away at East Grinstead.

In the East Conference Holcombe got their promotion campaign back on track with a 2-1 win at home to Bromley & Beckenham. They are three points adrift of Southgate, who maintained their lead by winning 0-2 at Oxted. New boys Brighton & Hove picked up their first point of the season by drawing 1-1 at home to Richmond.

In the West Conference, old favourites Team Bath Buccaneers slipped into the lead with a 1-3 win away at Indian Gymkhana. They took the place of Cardiff and Met who could only draw 2-2 at Fareham.  The Welsh side also have a game in hand. Guildford won their first points of the season with a 2-0 win over Havant.

In the North Conference, Durham University lead the charge with an unbeaten record and a 4-1 win over Belper.  However, they are being chased hard by Brooklands MU in second place. Brooklands pulled off a sizeable win with an 8-2 result at home to Leek.

In the Women’s Premier Division, Canterbury have managed to catch up with Reading after beating Surbiton 2-1. Reading could only draw away at Clifton, but stay ahead on goal difference.

Olton & West Warwicks got off comparatively lightly with a 6-0 defeat at University of Birmingham. That’s now 52 goals they’ve conceded in seven matches.  Fellow strugglers, Sutton Coldfield, lost 2-3 at home to Bowdon Hightown.  For the sentimentalists it’s worth noting that both Tina Cullen and Jane Sixsmith, both vintage players and MBEs, scored in that match.

Leicester had a useful win away at Beeston, giving them their third win of the season. Score there, 1-2 to Leicester.

In the Conference East, Holcombe dropped their first points of the season with a 0-2 defeat at home to East Grinstead.  Holcombe keep their top spot, but EG move into second, four points behind.

West Conference Buckingham’s defeat last week, the first for nearly two years, has been followed up with a second setback, this time against Swansea.  The score in that match 1-0.  Slough take over first place after beating Oxford Hawks 4-0.

In the North Conference, University of Durham remain unbeaten and retain the lead after beating new-girls Kendall 4-2.

FULL RESULTS AND TABLES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE.

READING TO MEET LILLE IN EURO DECIDER. A report from Lille and the EuroHockey League Round 1.2

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Reading suffered a setback in their first Round 1.2 match in the Euro Hockey League here in Lille this afternoon

Playing  Rotterdam, the match showed some of the symptoms of the earlier encounter between Rotterdam and the hosts, Lille.  Rotterdam are clearly slow starters, but once they start they are unstoppable.  Lille had scored the opening goal against Rotterdam yesterday, but playing Reading it was the Dutch who found the net first, courtesy of Frans Hagemans 13 minutes into the match.

It was an unfortunate start for the English team, who had shown some enterprising play and had several promising penetrations into their opponent's D.  But the second half was a different story.  Increasingly visits into Dutch territory became rare, and Rotterdam’s Bjorn Kellerman scored twice to give his side a 3-0 lead.

It wasn’t  quite all over for Reading.   A breakaway led to a foul by the Rotterdam defence which resulted in a penalty stroke award, which Jonty Clarke put into the back of the Rotterdam net.  If there was a glimmer of hope it was soon dispelled  by Seve Van As, who gave Rotterdam their fourth goal. Final score 4-1 to Rotterdam.

The result creates an interesting situation.  Reading and Lille are on equal points and goal difference. Reading have to win when the two sides meet tomorrow, or face the possibility of a shoot-out decider if the match ends in a draw. Having seen Lille play yesterday, they will no be a walk over.

Pictures from this match ad other Euro Hockey League matches in Lille are on our  site at www.HockeyImages.co.uk.

INVESTEC WOMEN'S CUP ROUND 2 RESULTS

Beeston	(  3   )	7	-	0	(  0   )	Didsbury Northern
Boots	(      )	P	-	P	(      )	Buckingham
Bowdon Hightown	(  4   )	9	-	0	(  0   )	Neston South Wirral
Brooklands Poynton	(  2   )	3	-	4	(  2   )	Surbiton
Clifton	(      )		-		(      )	Doncaster
* W/O to Clifton
East Grinstead	(  2   )	2	-	3	(  0   )	Bristol Firebrands
Exeter & Culm Vale Hornets	(  0   )	0	-	17	( 10  )	Loughborough Students
Hampstead & Westminster	(      )		-		(      )	Aylesbury
* W/O to Hampstead & West
Holcombe	(   2  )	3	-	0	(   0  )	Chelmsford
Maidenhead	(  1   )	5	-	2	(  2   )	Bedford Town
Norwich City	(      )		-		(      )	St. Neots
* W/O to Norwich City
Sevenoaks	(  3   )	4	-	4	(  2   )	Horsham
*Sevenoaks win 5-4 on pens
Timperley	(  0   )	1	-	4	(  1   )	Sutton Coldfield
University of Birmingham	(  2   )	3	-	0	(  0   )	Liverpool Sefton
West Herts	(  0   )	1	-	5	(  1   )	Gloucester City
Worthing	(  0   )	0	-	3	(  2   )	Leamington

HAMPSTEAD SUFFER 11 GOAL DEFEAT. A round-up of today's action in the NOW:Pensions Men's League.

Readers will recall that we were at Hampstead & Westminster last weekend, and they seemed to be doing OK. Today’s result will make everyone re-assess their chances this season after they lost 11-1 away at Reading this afternoon in the NOW:Pensions Premiership. Surprisingly, Reading actually drop one place in the table from last weekend into third place, whilst Hampstead & Westminster do the same and are now fifth.

Both East Grinstead & Reading were displaced from the top place by virtue of Beeston catching up with their games in hand over the weekend. Yesterday they beat Sheffield Hallam 5-2, and this afternoon they defeated Canterbury 3-2. 

Loughborough Students continue to struggle , with a 0-5 defeat at home to Surbiton. The Students remain in tenth place, and Surbiton move up to fourth but have a game in hand.  Wimbledon’s great start to the season has failed to continue as they have met some of the Premier Division’s big beasts. Today’s ‘big beast’ was East Grinstead.  The two sides had matched each other ball for ball, but second half goals from Mark Gleghorne and Masrk Pearn had seen ‘Grinstead take the match 3-5.

Two of the division’s strugglers, Cannock and Sheffield Hallam, met this afternoon. With the score at 2-1 to Cannock, Sheffield Hallam were gifted an own goal and the match ended at 2-2.  The two sides remain in eighth and ninth respectively. 

Southgate continue to lead the Conference East after a 4-4 draw against Holcombe at home. The visitors were trailing 4-2 at one stage, but a goal from David Appleton and a penalty corner conversion by Gareth Carr, ended the match at 4-4.  The draw was enough to push Holcombe into second place due to Bromley and Beckenham suffering a 5-1 defeat at Teddington. 

The Conference North continues to see University of Durham lead the charge, despite only managing a 3-3 draw against Khalsa. Bowdon’s 4-1 win at home against Leek means that both the University and Bowdon are on 16 points, with the University enjoying a better goal difference.

Cardiff & Met have a game in hand, but their 4-2 win over struggling Guildford keeps them ahead in the Conference West.  Also on 13 points is Havant, who won their match against Birmingham University 5-0.  The Welsh side have the better goal difference.

FULL RESULTS AND TABLES ARE ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE. WE HOPE TO HAVE CUP RESULTS LATER