M1 To Face Wimbledon in EHL KO8
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men avenged their 2019 shootout defeat to Belgian club Waterloo Ducks in the last game of the Euro Hockey League KO16, coming from behind to win 4-2 to earn a KO8 matchup with local rivals Wimbledon at 1700 on Sunday.
Waterloo Ducks led 1-0 at half time after Nicolas Dumont gave them the lead in the 24th minute from open play and then had Simon Vandenbroucke to thank for saving Conor Williamson's penalty stroke two minute later.
Surbiton found Waterloo Ducks' defence hard to crack, but a moment of pure magic in the 40th minute saw Williamson's aerial deftly lifted over the advancing Vandenbroucke by Player Of The Match, Struan Walker.
Three minutes later, the comeback was complete as Luke Taylor gave Surbiton a 2-1 lead from their third penalty corner.
Six minutes from time, James Gall's deflection from Surbiton's fourth penalty corner came close to putting the match out of Waterloo Ducks' reach before Taylor made sure from the penalty spot in the 56th minute to give the KO16 hosts a 4-1 lead, a scenario which would have seemed unlikely at the interval.
Tomas Domene found the backboard from Waterloo Ducks' final penalty corner two minutes from the end, but Surbiton progressed to an all English KO8 tie.
The match will be Wimbledon's second Battle of Britain of the weekend after they beat Scottish club Western Wildcats 3-1 in the preceding match.
Former Surbiton goalkeepers, Ore Ogunlana and Mark Haycroft were in the Wimbledon squad whilst Jamie Golden, another former Surbiton player is now playing for Western Wildcats.
And it was Golden who equalised for Western Wildcats from a penalty corner in the 20th minute after Euan Gilmour had put Wimbledon ahead in the tenth minute with a shot into the roof of the net.
Sam Hooper restored Wimbledon's lead from a penalty corner in the 26th minute and following another penalty corner award three minutes later, dispatched the subsequent penalty stroke to give Wimbledon a 3-1 lead at the break.
And that turned out to be the final score after a goalless second half to set up a mouth-watering local derby in the final match of Sunday's schedule.
The first two KO16 ties turned out to be one sided with Germany's Hamburger Polo Club beating Austrian club SV Arminen 11-1. Hamburger led 6-0 at the interval. Constantin Staib, Paul Smith, Kane Russell and Hugo Inglis all notched braces with Tom Craig, Jan-Hendrik Bartlels and Tim Brand also scoring. Florian Steyrer scored for Arminen four minutes from time.
HC Rotterdam v Czechia club TJ Pizen-Litice turned out to be a Jeroen Hartzberger masterclass as he scored six goals for the Dutch club. Matthijs van der Wielen opened the scoring with Pepijn van der Heijden and Olivier Hortensius also scoring in the 9-0 win.
TJ Plzen-Litice meet SV Arminen at 1015 in the first ranking match followed by HC Rotterdam v Hamburger Polo Club in the first KO8 match at 1230.
Waterloo Ducks face Western Wildcats in the final ranking math at 1445 before Surbiton and Wimbledon's clash at 1700.
More information can be found at the EuroHockey Altius website here