M1 Win 8-0 At Cardiff & Met
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men closed the goal difference gap at the top of the Men's Hockey League Premier Division by winning 8-0 at Cardiff & Met on Saturday evening after Old Georgians beat Hampstead & Westminster 4-1 at home 90 minutes earlier.
Surbiton are level with Old Georgians on 21 points, but now have a goal difference of plus 30 compared with Old Georgians' plus 32. However, Surbiton weren't the biggest scorers on Saturday, as Holcombe won 12-1 at the University of Nottingham, Nick Bandurak scoring six goals.
The game at Cardiff can be watched back via the Cardiff & Met HC channel on You Tube here
The match starts approximately 20 minutes in from the start of the video.
Surbiton made the perfect start, Welsh international, Gareth Furlong putting Surbiton ahead in the fourth minute from their first penalty corner of the match in Wales. Three minutes later, Luke Taylor doubled the visitors' lead, beating Mark Philpot from the penalty spot.
Louis Gittens extended Surbiton's lead in the 20th minute from open play with Taylor adding his team's fourth goal in the 25th minute from Surbiton's third penalty corner after Cardiff defended the second before a successive re-award.
Three minutes before half time, Jack Hobkirk scored Surbiton's fifth goal from open play before Alex Williams had the final say of the first half, giving Surbiton a massive 6-0 lead at the interval, also from open play.
Surbiton had led 3-0 at Beeston on the previous Sunday before romping to a 9-1 victory, but in South Wales, they had a quieter second half, having to wait until the 50th minute before Struan Walker put Surbiton in seventh heaven from open play. Furlong, having opened the scoring in the fourth minute, completed the scoring in the 56th from Surbiton's fourth and final penalty corner of the match.
Cardiff battled, going close on occasion and forced three penalty corners in the final three minutes to try and get a consolation score as they had done when they lost 9-1 to Old Georgians on home turf, but James Mazarelo collected his second clean sheet in three games as Surbiton scored 23 goals in three matches over two weekends, having beaten Oxted 6-0 at home and won 9-1 at Beeston last week and now won 8-0 at Cardiff & Met.
Sam Ward amassed another hat-trick and Alan Forsyth scored Old Georgians' fourth goal as the reigning champions beat Hampstead & Westminster 4-1 at home. Sam Apoola had put Hampstead 1-0 up in the fourth minute.
Third-placed Holcombe put the University of Nottingham to the sword, Tom Russell and Alex Pendle supporting Bandurak's six goal haul with braces, Phil Roper and Hayden Phillips scoring Holcombe's last two goals.
Wimbledon beat Southgate 5-2 at home with five different scorers. Ed Horler, Jack Turner and Rhys Bradshaw all scored in the first quarter of an hour before Matt Ramshaw and Richmond Lum fought back for the visitors to make the score 3-2. Euan Gilmour and Sam Hooper saw off Southgate with goals in the last seven minutes.
Oxted won a seven goal thriller with Beeston. Beeston led twice through Henry Croft and Dylan Lim Hon, Charlie Axford levelling for Oxted the first time and Chris Webster scoring the second equaliser as the teams were locked at 2-2 at half time. Croft put Beeston ahead for a third time, but Webster and Peter Jarvis scored in the last five minutes to secure a stunning 4-3 win for the Surrey club.
The weather beat Reading and East Grinstead as their match was abandoned with East Grinstead leading 2-0 at the end of the third quarter.
Surbiton are at home to Reading on 4 November, push back 6 pm.