We usually lead on the results in the Premier Division of
the NOW: Pensions Men’s Hockey League, but an East Conference game threw up a
surprise result which cannot go unmentioned.
The match in question was the meet between Teddington, who
were mid table this morning, and Holcombe, in the Conference East. Holcombe had a 100% record and might have claimed
the top spot had it not been for their game at Oxted being abandoned two weeks
ago when the floodlights could not be turned on. But Teddington seem to have
well and truly upset the apple cart.
Teddington’s William Collins opened the scoring within the
first minute, but Holcombe were quick to reply with goals from Barry Middleton
and Danny Hall. We saw this last week when Holcombe got off to a slow start
against Brighton & Hove in the first half, but cruised home to a
comfortable win in the second. But this
did not happen at Teddington. Andrew Pett equalised just before half time, and
the match looked as if it was heading for a draw when Chris Seddon scored for
Teddington, with only three minutes left on the clock. We thought last week
that Holcombe were not performing as well as their star-studded line-up should,
and their first defeat of the season sends them down to fourth place, at the
head of three sides on six points.
Southgate still lead the East Conference after beating Richmond 3-1. Richmond are in ninth
place, ahead of bottom placed Brighton & Hove, who lost 1-2 to St Albans
this afternoon.
In the Premier
Division Beeston lead the charge with a 100% record. They beat Surbiton
3-2, which pushes the Surrey club down from second to fourth in the table.
Hampstead & Westminster lost their match against East
Grinstead in the cruellest way. Having taken the lead in the 45th
minute, H&W conceded a goal scored to Mark Pearn, and then scored an own
goal with eight minutes left. Final score: 2-3 to East Grinstead. East
Grinstead remain second and H&W fifth.
Cannock, desperate for goals and points, got both when they
played host to Canterbury. 4-0 ahead at
half time, their visitors came back at them in the second half with three goals
in the last 10 minutes, but it was too last to reverse the eventual outcome.
Final score: Cannock 6, Canterbury 4.
Cannock rise from ninth to seventh, with Canterbury slumping to the
bottom of the table.
Sheffield Hallam recorded their first points of the season
with a 1-3 win away at Loughborough Students.
That moves them two places up the table to eighth, with the Students
slumping from seventh to ninth. Reading
move into third place after two first half goals from Jonty Clarke and Richard
Mantell gave them a 0-2 win away at Wimbledon. Wimbledon remain in sixth place.
Cardif and Met spoilt their 100% record when they could only
draw 2-2 in their match against University of Birmingham in the Conference West. They remain top. But
things seem to be going from bad to worse at Guildford, where they conceded
their fourth straight defeat, this time at the hands of Isca. Final score there, 1-3 to Isca.
In the Conference
North, the University of Durham continue to prosper with a 2-1 win at home
to Leek. New boys West Bridgford picked up their first point of the season,
drawing 3-3 against fellow debutantes Deeside Ramblers. However, they remain in
bottom place.
FULL TABLES AND SCORES ARE ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE.
