Canterbury nearly pulled off a shock win against the Poles from Pocztowiec Poznan in the opening match of the EuroHockey Indoor Club Championships here in Perth this afternoon. Canterbury, who have had a disappointing season both indoors and out, went down to an early goal from the Poles, but David Matthews led the Canterbury charge with a reply within seconds. It took the Poles less than a minute to retake the lead but again it was Matthews who made an almost immediate reply from the penalty spot. (Our picture shows the foul on Matthews that resulted in the penalty award). Although their inexperience at this level showed, Canterbury clearly were not overawed by their more experienced opponents. A save at full stretch by Ben Cowling in the Canterbury goal kept the Kent side in the running but Poznan went into the break at 3-2 ahead. The second half was less than a two minutes old when Matthews struck again to level the scores and three minutes later Matt Harper scored to give Canterbury the lead. Their lead was not to last long. A penalty stroke brought the score up to 4-4 and seemingly galvanised by losing the lead, the Poles struck twice more to give the final score of 7-4. The score belies the fact that Canterbury actually put in a very creditable effort against a side which was caused problems for English opponents in the past. Canterbury’s next match is against the very strong German side, Crefelder at 17:00.
