We love double headers at TalkHockeyRadio, so it didn't take much persuading to tempt us along to Sonning Lane to see Reading's women play Slough, and Reading's men play Hampstead & Westminster.
It would have been difficult to find two more contrasting games. After a slightly cautious start, Reading's Alex Danson opened the scoring in the 19th minute, after which she led a bit of a goal blitz against the unfortunate Slough. Like a blond terrier let off its leash, she took full advantage of the space given to her by a hapless Slough defence. There was a bit of a debate after the match about how many times she had scored, which varied from five to six, but the official record shows that she scored four, the other five goals in their 9-1 win coming from Emma Thomas (2), Kate Walsh, Jessica Brooker and Susie Gilbert.
Although Slough looked doomed to play their hockey in the Conference next season, there is a glimmer of hope, as demonstrated by Alex Scott's 26 minute goal.
An unfortunate incident saw Olympic bronze medallist Helen Richardson taken off to hospital early in the match after being struck in the eye by a stick. We are please to say that she made an appearance after the match, with her eye closed and bruised, and it appears that the injury is not serious as it might have been. Our best wishes to Helen for a speedy recovery.
Reading men got off to a cracking start with two goals in less than seven minutes against Hampstead & Westminster, both goals coming from Huw Jones. After that Reading seemed to lose the plot entirely, and Hampstead went into the break 2-3 ahead after goals from Neil Hamilton, Scott Cooper and Jack Beard. Reading eventually managed to scrape a point as a result of a second half corner conversion from Richard Mantell.
Elsewhere in the Men's Premier Division, we seem to have returned to crazy and unpredictable results. Surbiton, who were propping up the table only two weeks ago, pulled off a 3-2 win over East Grinstead. Surbiton move up one place to sixth, whilst EG move down one place to fifth.
Canterbury recovered from last weekend's setback against Cannock to beat Brooklands MU 3-5, after the sides had gone into the break three apiece. Beeston continue their winning ways with a 5-1 win over third placed Cannock. It is interesting to note that Beeston's goal difference of +31 means that Canterbury is the only other side in the Premier Division with a positive goal difference. As a benchmark, most other divisions have six sides with positive goal differences.
At the bottom of the table, Southgate made a brave effort to unstick themselves from the bottom place and, at 3-1 down at home to Loughborough Students, a Francois Pretorious penalty stroke must have given them a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, they were not able to improve on this and the match ended 2-3 to the Students.
In the East Conference, Holcombe lead the charge, six points ahead of Wimbledon. They played on Saturday beating Oxted 3-0. Wimbledon dropped points again in a battle royal away at City of Peterborough. With Wimbledon coming from behind to twice take the lead, it was a late Gareth Andrew goal that gave Peterborough a 3-3 draw.
The North Conference leaders are still only separated by one point after leaders Sheffield Hallam beat Wakefield 8-1, whilst Bowdon keep in touch with a 5-1 win over Khalsa.
The West Conference is still led by Guildford and Cardiff and UWIC, both on 21 points. Guildford remain top with an improved goal difference after a 5-2 win over Whitchurch. Cardiff were 5-0 ahead at home to Bath Buccaneers but in just over ten minutes at the end of the match, George Farrant, Tim Davenport and Niklas Rieger had pulled the score back to 5-3. Then, to cap it all, Cardiff conceded an own goal in the last minute. Final score, 5-4 to Carfiff.
FULL RESULTS CAN BE FOUND AT OUR MAIN WEB SITE AT www.TalkHockeyRadio.co.uk.
