What was being billed as the Match of the Day, the
NOW:Pensions Premier Division meeting between Reading and Beeston, finished this afternoon with the bragging
rights still on hold. When the two sides met back in September it was a close
game, with Beeston taking the honours. Today’s match seemed to be going Beeston’s
way when Gordon McIntyre put the Nottingham side 1-2 ahead with a penalty
corner strike. But it took Andy Watts less than a minute to put the two sides
back on parity.
The final score of 2-2 leaves Beeston and Reading holding
their respective first and third places in the table. However, Beeston will be
looking over their shoulder at East Grinstead who are now only two points
behind them after a 7-4 win at home to Canterbury. It was the Grinners Celtic
arm which did most of the damage, with Iain Lewers opening their scoring, and Mark
Gleghorne and Niall Stott scoring a brace apiece.
Loughborough Students move off the bottom of the Premier
Division table for the first time since 6 October after a 2-1 win over
Hampstead & Westminster. Their place
is taken by Sheffield Hallam, who were given an uncomfortable afternoon away at
Surbiton, losing 8-1. Despite a poor
season, this is easily Hallam’s worst result so far.
Wimbledon continued to keep in touch with the leaders with a
2-0 win over Cannock. They are in fifth place, two points behind Surbiton.
In the East
Conference, Holcombe has moved ahead of this morning’s leaders, Southgate,
as a result of playing two matches against Oxted on consecutive days. Holcombe has been one match in hand for most
of the season after the floodlights failed when the clubs were first due to
meet back in September. Oxted had felt
confident back then that they could have pulled off a win. They would feel less
confident after this weekend’s two results, conceding 15 goals in total. Yesterday’s match, which ended 9-2, was
technically today’s match, as the re-arranged game was played this afternoon. That
finished 2-6 to Holcombe.
The six points from the weekend mean that Holcombe are on 28
points, ahead of Southgate on goal difference.
Southgate played Brighton & Hove this afternoon, winning 1-0. A ten
point gap has opened up between them and third placed Teddington as a result of
Teddington losing 3-1 to Richmond.
At the top of the North
Conference the leaders recorded some high scoring matches, with Brooklands
MU maintaining their lead with a 10-2 win over Khalsa. University of Durham, in second place, won
their match against Wakefield 6-1.
Guildford lifted themselves off the bottom of the Conference West with a 0-2 win away at
Fareham. Guildford’s Tom Herring, who can often be seen behind a video camera
at England Hockey events, opened the scoring after only three minutes.
Guildford move up one place to ninth. At the top end of the table Bath
Buccaneers stay in front after a 4-0 win over Isca, thanks in part to a Tim
Davenport hat-trick. Two points behind them are Indian Gymkhana, who beat
Birmingham University 0-2. But early
season leaders, Cardiff and Met, have gone off the boil with their second
defeat of the season, going down 2-1 to University of Exeter.
FULL RESULTS AND TABLES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR WEB SITE AT
www.TalkHockeyRadio.co.uk.
