M1 Beat Holcombe 3-0 To Finish Top of Pool B
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men will play Wimbledon for the fourth time this season, in the semi-final of the Athleteq.App Premier Division Finals at Nottingham Hockey Centre, after beating Holcombe 3-0 on Saturday evening to clinch the first place finish in Pool B.
Wimbledon lost 4-2 to Old Georgians in Pool A to end up as runners-up and earn the fourth meeting after two previous meetings in the Premier Division and a meeting in the Euro Hockey League at Sugden Road in October.
The semi-final meeting will see the top two goalkeepers in the clean sheets list come head to head with Surbiton's James Mazarelo joining former Surbiton goalkeeper and now current Wimbledon goalkeeper Ore Ogunlana on five clean sheets for the season.
Surbiton's victory means that Holcombe miss out on a Finals weekend appearance for the second year running after Oxted beat Beeston 3-2 to finish second in Pool B and earn a last four meeting with Old Georgians.
The game with Holcombe can be watched back via the Surbiton Hockey Club channel on You Tube here.
Surbiton's Jonny Gall made his 250th Surbiton first team appearance against the Kent club and the milestone was marked by a pre-match presentation on the Sugden Road pitch.
Holcombe needed to win after losing a shootout to Oxted after a drawn match, but fell behind in the sixth minute, Struan Walker crossing from the left for James Gall to poke the ball home at the right post.
Holcombe's frustration started to surface with Matt Ramshaw, their second top scorer received a green card in the 20th minute and two minutes later, Surbiton took full advantage, Jake Smith doubling Surbiton's lead to leave Holcombe's qualification hopes in peril.
Unusually, there were no penalty corner awards for either team in the first half, with Surbiton only winning the first award of the game three minutes after half time, Holcombe goalkeeper, Ollie Payne saving from Struan Walker.
Surbiton's third goal came in the 41st minute, James Gall running towards goal in a one on one situation with Payne, who saved Gall's initial shot, but was beaten as Gall sent the ball against the backboard to all but seal Holcombe's fate.
Two minutes later, Mo Mea became the second Holcombe player to find himself in the sin-bin, but the visitors didn't give up and forced five penalty corners in the final fifteen minutes, only to be denied by Mazarelo as Holcombe failed to score for the second successive visit to Sugden Road, having lost 4-0 on 15 March.
Surbiton finished with nine points, four ahead of Oxted with Holcombe on four points. Beeston lost all three matches.
Oxted led 2-0 against Beeston courtesy of goals from Charlie Axford and Isaac Dale before Oliver Dunn pulled a goal back for the Nottingham club. Peter Jarvis restored Oxted's two goal advantage before Dunn scored a second goal for Beeston, who threatened to get a last gasp equaliser and force a shootout, but just failed.
In Pool A, a Sam Ward hat-trick helped Old Georgians to a 4-2 home win over Wimbledon, Tom Carson scoring the hosts' fourth goal. Fred Newbold and Ed Horler scored for Wimbledon.
Joe Sharp, Jolyon Morgan and Tim Cross scored for Hampstead & Westminster as they beat East Grinstead 3-1, Louis Tipper scoring what proved to be East Grinstead's consolation goal.
In the relegation playoffs, Bowdon fought to the end but couldn't stave off relegation, in spite of a 4-1 win at the other relegated team, Richmond. Jack McAuliffe, Matt Bellin, Richie Dawson-Smith and Tom Ainsworth all scored for the Altrincham club, but it wouldn't have been enough to overcome the inferior goal difference between themselves and Southgate. Owen Barnes scored for Richmond.
Southgate made safety absolutely certain with a thrilling 5-4 win at Cardiff & Met. Archie Foster gave Southgate the lead, only for Scott Rawlings to equalise within two minutes. Cardiff then led 3-1 thanks to a second goal from Rawlings and a penalty corner conversion from Ioan Wall before Southgate fought back with four goals in nine minutes.
Jack Middleton scored to reduce Cardiff's lead to 3-2 before Foster scored a hat-trick between the 60th and 68th minutes to take his personal tally for the match to four goals. Wall scored a last minute consolation for Cardiff, but Southgate took the three points back to London.