The first day of the 2012-2013 national league season saw all teams in action, with the exception of Old Loughtonians and Richmond from the Men's Conference East. They play tomorrow (Sunday).
The Men's Premiership saw Beeston get off to a cracking start with an 2-8 win away at Cannock, with Simon Egerton scoring four of Beeston's goals. There was a high scoring match at Hampstead & Westminster too, where visiting Reading put seven past the home side for a reply of two. The score included a hat-trick of penalty corners from Richard Mantell and a goal from new boy Darren Cheesman. Surbiton got off to an encouraging start at East Grinstead, where a hat-trick from James Tindall gave them a 3-0 lead, only to lose the match 4-3.
TalkHockeyRadio was at Canterbury to see the two newly promoted sides play each other. It was difficult to separate the sides on the early exchanges but Canterbury started to take control of the match and were rewarded with goals from Liam Foster and Kwan Browne. But in the second half, Brooklands managed to get back into the game with two goals in five minutes, the first from Sam French and the second from Nick Giles. The game appeared to be slipping away from Canterbury when Devohn Teixeria converted a penalty corner, and a penalty stroke awarded shortly after was netted courtesy of the evergreen David Matthews. Final score 4-2 in Canterbury's favour.
It is difficult to judge the two newly promoted sides on this performance but we were left with the impression that both need to up their game considerably to survive against the betting sides in the division. One unusual feature of this match was the presence of retired international umpire Andy Mair assisting with the coaching!
After one match, Beeston lead the Premiership on goal difference, followed by Reading and Canterbury.
The Women's Premiership saw new girls, Surbiton, put their mark on the division with an emphatic win over Reading. Sarah Page, Chloe Strong, Natalie Bell and Bethan Jenkins were the scorers in their 4-0 win.
Slough need a bit of a health check as they have been haemorrhaging players before the season started, and the signs do not look good as they went down 1-3 at home against Clifton. Champions, Leicester, came away from Olton & West Warwicks with three points after a 1-2 win. Sutton Coldfield find themselves in the heady heights of third in the table after a 0-2 win at University of Birmingham.
FULL SCORES AND TABLES CAN BE FOUND ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE. PICTURES FROM THE MATCH BETWEEN CANTERBURY AND BROOKLANDS MU WILL APPEAR ON OUR PICTURES PAGES SOON.
