W1 Get Off To Winning Start In Hamburg
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Women began their EuroHockey Club Trophy I campaign with a 2-1 win over Scottish club, Watsonians in their opening Pool B game on Friday.
Surbiton end day one in second place in the pool after Der Club an der Alster thrashed Butterfly Roma 12-1 to go top of the pool in emphatic fashion.
Surbiton made the perfect start, going ahead in the second minute through Sophie Hamilton, but Watsonians replied a minute later through Sarah Jamieson.
The decisive goal came in the 24th minute courtesy of Giselle Ansley to give Surbiton five points in their quest for a semi-final place.
There was a flurry of cards starting in the 42nd minute when Bethan Mann saw green, only for Surbiton's Amy Costello to join her in the sin-bin a minute later after being shown a card of the same colour. Watsonians' Bethany Dodds also saw green with five minutes to play, but Surbiton secured the win in spite of being without first choice goalkeeper Sabbie Heesh through injury, Amber Walton taking over in goal admirably.
Surbiton will face Der Club an der Alster in their second match on Saturday at 1545 GMT. They will have no illusions about the German club's firepower after their stunning win over Butterfly Roma.
Der Club an der Alster were 3-0 up after just three minutes, Katharina Haid scoring in the first and second minutes before Carlotta Sippel added the third goal. Hanna Granitzki extended the lead to 4-0 in the sixth minute and a brace from Emily Wolbers left Butterfly Roma trailing 6-0 by the twelfth minute.
Granitzki found the net again in the 18th minute before Hannah Gablac scored four minutes before half time to give Club an der Alster an amazing 8-0 lead at the interval.
Butterfly Roma didn't give up and were rewarded in the 34th minute when Agnese Grossi scored what proved to be a consolation for the Italian team. Viktoria Huse converted penalty strokes in the 38th and 42nd minutes to give Club an der Alster their double digit tally before Juliane Grashoff and Anne Schroder scored in the 43rd and 47th minutes to complete the scoring.
More information about the EuroHockey Club Trophy I including being able to follow games in real time can be found at the EHF Altius website here
In Pool A, Belgian club KHC Dragons and Ukraine team MSC Sumchanka will meet on Saturday to decide which team will go top of their pool after both teams recorded identical 4-1 victories on Friday. KHC Dragons beat HC Rotweiss Wettingen of Switzerland and MSC Sumchanka defeated Slavia Prague of the Czech Republic.
In the Euro Hockey League, East Grinstead lost 3-1 to hosts AH&BC Amsterdam in the FINAL8. Sabine Plonissen gave Amsterdam the lead in the 14th minute and still led 1-0 at half time.
Felice Albers doubled Amsterdam's lead two minutes into the third quarter before East Grinstead's Sophie Bray made history by scoring the West Sussex's club's first goal in the Euro Hockey League in the 47th minute.
Freeke Moes' penalty corner conversion was enough to clinch a FINAL4 meeting with fellow Dutch club SCHC on Sunday. East Grinstead will meet Belgian club Gantoise in a ranking match at 1015 CET (0915 BST) on Sunday.
In the Men's EuroHockey Club Trophy I in Lousada, Portugal, Cardiff & Met drew 1-1 with Arminen in Pool A. In the other Pool A match, Slavia Prague beat Olten of Switzerland 3-2. Cardiff play Olten on Saturday at 1115 GMT.
The home page of the EHF Altius website is here