What started as a romp turned into a rout when Canterbury played their second Pool A match in the EuroHockey Indoor Club Championships in Perth this afternoon. Playing the German champions Crefelder, they found themselves two behind in the opening minutes of the match. But despite that, there was no hint of what was to follow. Showing great effort in the face of some consummate skill on the part of their opponents, they managed to get back into the match with a seventh minute goal from Matt Harper. After that it was all downhill. The Crefelder defender Oska Deecke scored four before half-time, with other goals coming from captain Matthias Whitthaus (2) and Tim Witthaus. 7-1 down at half-time, the second half turned into a rout. Pin-point passing and clean stopping of the ball set the Germans apart. Canterbury’s defence was in disarray and at one stage skipper Whitthaus calmly strolled up the back line, untroubled by any defenders, to calmly walk the ball into the Canterbury net. When the eleventh Crefelder goal went in off the stick of Alan Butt I saw Canterbury’s David Matthews turn and look at the scoreboard in disbelief. Worse was to come. Crefelder eventually managed to clock up a total of eighteen. Final score 18-1 to Crefelder. Canterbury’s next Pool match is against Danish side Orient Lyngby at 13:00 tomorrow. The first of the crossover matches are later that afternoon.
A full summary of today’s play plus photographs will appear on this blog later.
