M1 Beat Oxted 8-1 In League Finals Pool B
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men got off to a fantastic start in Men's Hockey League Finals Pool B on Saturday evening as Oxted were beaten 8-1 at Sugden Road.
The game can be watched back via the Surbiton Hockey Club channel on You Tube here
Surbiton had beaten Oxted 6-0 in Phase One of the Premier Division season in October. On that occasion, they had had to wait until the 18th minute to open the scoring. In the second meeting, Oxted battled hard in the first fifteen minutes, but were undone in the 16th following a run by Tim Nurse into the 23 metre area and the edge of the circle before the ball found its way to Conor Williamson via Stuart Rushmere. Williamson finished from wide of the right post, falling down with the momentum of scoring.
The game ran away from Oxted in the second quarter when Surbiton scored three goals in three minutes, Oxted not helped by Charlie Axford being shown a yellow card in the 20th minute.
Alex Williams doubled Surbiton's lead in the 22nd minute while directly in front of visiting goalkeeper, Dom Dixon, Williams also falling to the ground from the momentum of putting the ball in the goal.
Two minutes later, Luke Taylor's drag-flick inside the right post gave Surbiton a 3-0 lead, shortly followed by James Gall's angled finish into the inside right side board to extend Surbiton's lead to 4-0.
In the 38th minute, Surbiton were awarded their first penalty stroke of the match after a shot from their fifth penalty corner was stopped illegally in front of goal. Taylor slipped the ball to Dixon's right, having also scored from the penalty spot in the first meeting.
A minute later, Oxted scored what proved to be a consolation from their only penalty corner of the match. Guy Morgan scored for Oxted in the fifth of six matches played in 2024, shortly after moving slightly to receive the injection.
Gareth Furlong got into the penalty corner conversion act, drag-flicking the ball into the top left corner to restore Surbiton's five goal advantage at 6-1 at the end of the third quarter and added Surbiton's seventh goal early in the fourth quarter. Williams completed the scoring from close range with five minutes to play.
In the other match in Pool B, Wimbledon beat Southgate 7-3. Sam Hooper scored four goals, Evan Kimber scored twice and Ben Francis was also on target as Wimbledon bounced back from losing 7-2 at Old Georgians in the last match of Phase Two. Teague Marcano, Karan Sofat and Matt Ramshaw were Southgate's scorers.
In Pool A, defending champions Old Georgians beat Beeston 5-4. Alan Forsyth and Edward Carson scored twice for the hosts with Chris Griffiths scoring between each player's brace. Henry Croft scored twice for Beeston, supported by Jamie Rawlings and William Prentice.
Jolyon Morgan's goal proved to be the winner as Hampstead & Westminster won 1-0 at Holcombe.
In the relegation playoffs, Cardiff & Met boosted their chances of survival with a 2-2 home draw with Reading. Jack Pritchard and Scott Rawlings scored two goals in three minutes for Cardiff to salvage a point after Reading led 2-0 through Ben Hooper and Owen Lloyd.
With two games remaining, the Welsh club lead Reading by five points and the University of Nottingham by four points. East Grinstead, who are safe, beat the University of Nottingham 6-2 in West Sussex.
Max Lowrey scored twice for East Grinstead together with Ross Stott, Jack Webb, Isaac Farrant and Simon Faulkner, who all scored once. Luis Cuttle and Alex Sheldon were the University of Nottingham's scorers.
Surbiton play Southgate at Sugden Road next Saturday (23 March) push back 1815.