East Grinstead got off to an excellent, although sometimes hesitant, start in the first of their two Pool G matches in Round 1.1 of the EuroHockey League here in Mulheim this morning. Dave De Prez scored the first of East Grinstead’s goals in what appeared to be a comfortable start. But the their opponents, Dinamo Elektrostal from Russia, were soon challenging the English defence and were rewarded in less than a minute when their captain, Alksandr Platonov, scored an equaliser.
East Grinstead looked unsettled for a few minutes, but a penalty corner - and the Russians seem to have an uncanny knack of giving away unnecessary ones – lead to Ashley Jackson stepping up to convert. Second’s later Danny Hall scored the first of two first-half field goals. Shortly after his second, Ilfat Zamallutdinov scored for Elektrostal, sending the teams in at the half-time break at 4-2 in Grinstead’s favour.
The rain that has plagued this tournament so far, came back with a vengeance in the second half, after what had been a relatively dry morning. The hosts have borrowed two street cleaner vehicles from the local authority to supplement their own super-soaker, but there was talk after this match that they might be forced to transfer play to the second pitch, where there are no television cameras.
Getting back to this morning’s match, an early second-half goal from Mark Pearn followed by a penalty corner conversion from Ashley Jackson gave East Grinstead an unassailable lead, but Elektrostal’s Alexey Mompshkin pulled one back for the Russians from a penalty corner.
Grinstead looked strong in attack in this match but less so in defence. I spoke to Mark Pearn after the match, who told me that part of the problem was that of introducing the new but very talented new members into the team. They play Grunwald Poznan in the morning and a good win should see them emerge top of the pool.
