The fact that Reading held out for an entire half says something about the spirit and resilience of the club, but the fact is that they were playing what is probably the best club side in Europe, if not the world. Yellow cards have been handed out very freely in this tournament and Simon Lanyon’s suspension for breaking down play just before half time carried over long enough into the second half to put Reading on the back foot after the re-start. A penalty corner after five minutes was put away, yet again Christopher Zeller being the scorer. Four minutes later Ronald Brouwer made it two and from that point the Dutch side took complete charge of the match. Zeller scored his second from a penalty corner and Nick Meijer put in his side’s fourth with ten minutes of play remaining. But the Dutch pressure did give the boys from Reading some opportunities on the break, an opportunity which Jonty Clarke was pleased to accept with a fine goal in open play. But Clarke’s goal did not signal a revival for the English side. Brouwer scored his second from open play and host club’s hero Teun de Nooijer made it six for the Dutch, although not until Simon Mantell had converted a penalty stroke for a push in the back on a Reading player. Final score 6-2 to Bloemendaal and the Dutch win the bonze medal.
Photographs and a report from the final will be uploaded to this blog later this evening. Photographs from the tournament will be uploaded to our main web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk later this week.
