Spectators were treated to a match to tell their grandchildren about in the final of EuroHockey Indoor Club Championships in Perth this afternoon. Crefelder, who had strolled passed all their previous opposition were pitted against another Pool A side, the Poles from Pocztowiec Poznan. The Poles had looked good in all the previous matches but surely no match from the German masters from Crefelder? When the match got underway the Poles demonstrated that they had kept something back in reserve by scoring an early goal from open play courtesy of Tomasz Gorny. Oskar Deecke replied almost immediately from a penalty corner and the Germans went briefly ahead when skipper Matthias Witthaus found the net. Just before half time Rafal Grotowski put the sides back on equal terms when he converted a penalty corner. The second half went goalless, with the Poles perhaps having the better share of the possession. The match went to golden goal extra time and although the Poles had some scoring chances in the opening exchanges, the Germans had a spell where they put their opponents’ goal under increasing pressure and, from a resultant penalty corner, Witthaus found the net again with less than two minutes of extra time played. Final score 3-2 and the Championship goes to Crefelder. .
British hopes rested on the Scots from Menzieshill. The Scots had demonstrated that they were competent at this level, if a little lacking in ideas when faced by continental opposition. Ross McPherson gave them an early goal in their semi-final match against Club de Campo but the Spanish were too good for them and an overtime penalty corner conversion by Kenny Stibbles made the score look more flattering than perhaps the match deserved. Final score 5-4 to Club de Campo.
Canterbury’s almost impossible task of avoiding relegation was to prove to be just that. 4-0 at half time against Wiener, they stage a mini comeback in the second half when Stewart Keir converted a penalty corner and Zak Jones scored in open play of but the final score of 8-2 to the Austrians mean that both sides are relegated
Final placings in the EuroHockey Indoor Club Championships: 1. Crefelder (Germany), 2. Pocztowiec Poznan (Poland), 3. Club de Campo (Spain), 4. Menzieshill (Scotland), 5. Luzerner (Switzerland), 6. Orient Lyngby (Denmark), 7. Wiener (Austria), 8. Canterbury (England). England and Austria are relegated to the Trophy in 2009 when the English representatives will be Loughborough Students.
Outdoors, in the Slazenger England Hockey League, East Grinstead were in free scoring mode when they visited Bowdon. Goals from Danny Hall (2), Dave de Prez, Darren Cheeseman (3) and Ben Payne gave East Grinstead the advantage in their 8-4 win. East Grinstead now go second, having displaced Cannock who could only manage a draw at Hampstead and Westminster.
A FULL SET OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE EUROHOCKEY INDOOR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS WILL APPEAR ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE AT WWW.TALKHOCKEYRADIO.CO.UK IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS.
