M1 Stun Beeston With 9-1 Away Victory
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men stunned Beeston at Nottingham Hockey Centre on Sunday afternoon, romping to a record 9-1 victory in the Men's Hockey League Premier Division to join Old Georgians on 18 points.
Old Georgians also won 9-1 away at Cardiff & Met as the four team logjam at the top of the table was halved from four to two teams with Surbiton trailing Old Georgians on a seven goal worse goal difference.
Holcombe and Hampstead & Westminster both lost ground following home defeats: Holcombe losing 3-0 to Wimbledon and Hampstead going down 1-0 to East Grinstead.
Surbiton had won 7-1 at Beeston in March 2020, and equalled that scoreline with seven minutes to play before adding two further goals in the last six minutes to compound a miserable weekend for Beeston, who had lost 12-4 at Old Georgians on Saturday.
Beeston fell behind in the seventh minute, Luke Taylor's penalty corner drag-flick saved by home goalkeeper, Taylor Craigie, only for Louis Gittens to put away the rebound.
Surbiton led 3-0 at half time thanks to two clinical penalty corner conversions by Gareth Furlong in the 26th minute and just before the interval.
Having scored all three first half goals from penalty corners, Surbiton's fourth goal and their first from open play was a perfect example of how to score with a flowing passing move from just inside their own back-line.
Eight players were involved in the attack with James Gall passing back to Ben Stevenson who found Conor Williamson. Struan Walker received the ball on the left before Stuart Rushmere's quick pass set up a long run down the centre for Tim Nurse to pass to David Goodfield just wide of the left post with the resulting pass guided home by Alex Williams in the 41st minute.
Three minutes later, Furlong completed his hat-trick with yet another trademark penalty corner conversion.
Brendan Creed scored Surbiton's sixth goal in the 52nd minute, initially injecting the ball from a penalty corner before receiving the ball back and scoring with an angled shot at the left post.
Walker ensured Surbiton were in seventh heaven in the 57th minute, finishing off another flowing passing move started from a hit out. Williams' shot was saved before Walker only had to guide the ball over the line to put Surbiton 7-0 ahead.
Beeston's consolation goal came in the 63rd minute, Gareth Griffiths taking a free hit from the left before Henry Croft played a one-two move with Brendan Andrews, ending James Mazarelo's hopes of a second clean sheet of the weekend with a well taken shot.
Surbiton responded within a minute, Nick Park, who had scored in Beeston's last win over Surbiton at Sugden Road in November 2018, finishing from the left of the circle after opening up the Beeston defence with a run.
Luke Taylor had the final word in the penultimate minute, his powerful penalty corner drag-flick rebounding off the backboard to the frustration of Beeston's defence.
The game can be seen again via the Bee TV channel on You Tube here
Bee TV are combining double headers in one video, so the Surbiton game coverage starts at the 1 hour 59 minute mark, after the Women's game v Bowdon.
Sam Ward, who scored six goals against Beeston on Saturday, added another hat-trick at Cardiff & Met as Old Georgians scored 21 goals over the weekend. Alan Forsyth began the rout with a penalty stroke, with Tom Carson scoring twice, James Carson, Lee Morton and Chris Proctor all scoring a single goal in the 9-1 win.
Ben Francis, Ian Sloan and Sam Hooper all scored for Wimbledon in their 3-0 win at Holcombe. East Grinstead bounced back from their 7-1 home thrashing by Holcombe to win 1-0 at Hampstead & Westminster, thanks to Josh Gravestock's goal.
Oxted also fought back after their 6-0 loss at Surbiton to beat Reading 5-1 at home. Bradley Sherwood's brace, and goals from Chris Webster, Owen Williamson and Charlie Axford, lifted Oxted up to ninth. Lewis Fraser replied for Reading.
Southgate also won 5-1 at home over the University of Nottingham. Teague Marcano scored twice, Will Calnan, Karan Sofat and Kwan Browne secured Southgate's second win of the weekend after they won 4-1 at Reading on Saturday. Luis Cuttle scored Nottingham's consolation goal.
Surbiton cross the Welsh border next week, when they visit Cardiff & Met on Saturday evening, push back 6 pm.