Surbiton 4 – 1 Repton 1
(Men’s Tier 2 Championship Final)
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men’s 2nd XI beat Repton’s first team 4-1 to lift the England Hockey Championships Tier 2 Final trophy at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre on Sunday.
Repton started well but Arjan Drayton Chana came close to opening the scoring in the tenth minute, just failing to score at the left post from a cross from the right.
Repton’s Stuart Kentwell forced a save from Surbiton goalkeeper and man of the match, Mark Haycroft a minute later.
Dave Bartram gave Surbiton the lead in the twelfth minute from open play, but Repton missed the chance to level things up five minutes before half time when Billy Collins, with just Haycroft to beat sliced his shot past the right post.
Repton goalkeeper Jeremy Nelson made an important save from Ali Hitch three minutes before half time to keep Surbiton’s lead to 1-0.
Three minutes into the second half, Finn Cooper spectacularly doubled Surbiton’s lead. Surbiton’s main problem was the number of penalty corners they conceded and having defended the first four, Repton finally scored from their fifth award in the 44th minute, Simon Claris bringing Repton back into the match.
Whilst conceding penalty corners was Surbiton’s weakness, Repton received five cards, four in the last eight minutes. James Johnson was banished to the naughty step for two minutes after a foul on Surbiton captain, Matt Sheridan in the 62nd minute.
A minute later, Rhys Linnell and Bartram linked up and were rewarded with a penalty stroke which resulted in Repton’s Lloyd Madsen receiving a green card followed by a yellow card.
Liam Doidge calmly slotted the stroke past Nelson to put Surbiton 3-1 ahead With three minutes to play, Bartram scored his second goal of the match and Surbiton’s fourth, finishing at the left post after good attacking play from Drayton Chana, Claris becoming the second Repton player to see yellow.
The game was marred with just over one minute to play when a Repton player was injured and after a justified lengthy delay to assess his condition, was carried off the pitch to supportive applause from both teams’ players and supporters.
The game ended while Repton were preparing to take their sixth and final penalty corner, a free hit awarded to Surbiton to seal their victory.