The second day of the England Hockey League promotion play-offs had started with concerns that tomorrow’s matches might simply be a formality. But some amazing play in the afternoon’s men’s matches turned the whole promotion issue upside down.
Canterbury, who seemed doomed to relegation after yesterday’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Exeter University, made an amazing comeback in today’s match against Southgate. At 4-2 down they clawed their way back with two penalty corner conversions from Michael Farrer. But the match was to end in heartbreak for Canterbury, with a late winner from Southgate’s Clive Tewin. The match broke some sort of record for the weekend, with no less than eight players sent to the naughty seat but, despite this, it was an excess of enthusiasm rather than bad tempers that caused the yellow cards.
The all-university match between Exeter and Durham bore a number of similarities to the earlier match. Durham scored two early goals, leaving Exeter chasing the score until an overtime penalty corner equaliser sent the teams into half time at 2-2. Durham retook the lead after a penalty stroke early the second half, and increased their lead soon after with a penalty corner conversion by Daniel Coultas.
Coultas became the hero of the match after Exeter had scored twice from penalty corners to equalise at 4-4. With about two minutes left on the clock his penalty corner winner gave Durham a deserved victory.
With matches to be played tomorrow, issues are still wide open.
A disappointing match between Sutton Coldfield and Sevenoaks ended 3-0 in Sutton’s favour. The other women’s match got off to a slow start, but livened up in the second half to see Olton & WW beat Buckingham 6-1.
Full details of the scorers etc will appear on this blog later.
