Before looking at the NOW:Pensions Men’s League, a quick
glance at the single Investec Women’s League Premier Division match played this
afternoon. It was the vital top of the
table clash between Reading and Canterbury. The issue was settled by a single
goal – a penalty corner converted in the 21st minute by Canterbury’s
Mel Clewlow. The win gives back
leadership of the Premier Division to Canterbury, which they had surrendered to
Reading following their defeat against Beeston back on 12 October.
In contrast, there has been little in the way of change in
the NOW:Pensions Men’s League. That is not to say there has not been plenty of
games of interest. The most notable of these was the 2-3 defeat at home of
Premier Division leaders Beeston to mid-table Wimbledon - revenge for Wimbledon’s
1-3 defeat on the opening game of the season.
In common with all the other matches in the division, the positions of
the sides remains unchanged. Beeston
still lead, although on a reduced margin of four points, with Wimbledon
remaining in fifth.
Wimbledon was deprived of overtaking fourth placed Surbiton
by virtue of Surbiton’s 0-2 win away at Hampstead & Westminster.
East Grinstead and Reading remain neck and neck in second
and third places respectively, both on 23 points, with EG enjoying the better
goal difference by the slimmest of margins – two goals! East Grinstead was at
Sheffield Hallam, where the Yorkshire side put up a stiff fight to eventually
lose 3-5. Reading’s game at Canterbury
must have been a cracker, finishing 4-5 in Reading’s favour, and with the
visitors scoring all four goals in the second half to come back from 3-0 down.
Four goals? The match was the
penultimate league game before Christma,s and Canterbury gave Reading an early
Christmas present in the shape of an own goal.
It was clearly not the season of goodwill at Cannock, where
they were entertaining bottom of the table Loughborough Students. The Students only points of the season were
won against Cannock back on 14 September, and it looked as if they were well on
the way to adding one point to the three they already had. Having come back
from 2-0 down with two second-half goals, Nicholas Bandurak scored the winner
for Cannock with four minutes left on the clock. Their 3-2 win is only Cannock’s
second of the season.
TalkHockeyRadio was at Havant to see them play Conference West leaders, Bath
Buccaneers. For some reason we always seem to land up at this match (this is
the third time in three seasons) and it has always been a competitive and
entertaining match. Five of the Buccaneers are former Havant players, including
prolific goal scorer Tim Davenport, which adds a bit of extra spice to the
match.
Havant got off to a cracking start, with a ninth minute
penalty corner conversion by James Speke, and for a while it looked as if the
match could be all Havant’s. But a stick
tackle in the circle led to the award of a penalty stroke, which Tim Davenport
confidently put away to put the sides on equal terms. Three minutes later Buccaneers’ Jack Betenson
scored from open play, giving his side a 1-2 half-time lead. The second half saw Havant applying a lot of
pressure and they were eventually rewarded with a Craig Duffy goal in the last
ten minutes. The match looked set to end in a 2-2 draw, but with three minutes
left, Betenson scored his second to give the Buccaneers a 2-3 win.
A slightly bizarre incident during the match was when the
Havant coach came onto the pitch to speak to umpire Sean Edwards. We don’t know
what he said, and he was not invited onto the pitch, but it earned himself a
yellow card, which meant that Havant had to take a player off the pitch. We were left feeling sorry for the player
that Havant felt they could most do without!
PICTURES FROM THIS MATCH ARE AT WWW.HOCKEYIMAGES.CO.UK.
Elsewhere in the West Conference, Cardiff & Met stay
close on the tail of Bath Buccaneers after a 3-1 win at home to Isca. Indian Gymkhana stay within striking distance
of the top with a 5-0 win at home to Fareham.
In the Conference
East the top three clubs, Southgate, Holcombe and Teddington, all won their
matches this afternoon and the table remains unchanged.
The Conference North
is another table which remains unchanged but Brooklands MU has opened up a four
point gap between themselves and University of Durham. The Manchester side recorded
a 0-3 win against Wakefield, whilst the University could only draw 1-1 at Olton
& West Warwicks. West Bridgford at the bottom of the table, nearly recorded
their first win of the season. They were
3-4 ahead at Khalsa, having scored all of their goals in the space of 17
minutes late in the match. Their joy was
brought to an abrupt end when Khalsa’s Aaron Nagra scored from a penalty corner
in the dying seconds of the match. Final score 4-4.
FULL RESULTS AND TABLES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE
