M1 Win 4-1 At Hampstead
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men completed Phase 2 of the Men's Hockey League Premier Division with a fine 4-1 win at Hampstead & Westminster on Saturday evening.
Surbiton finished second, eight points behind Old Georgians, who had clinched the first place finish last Saturday. Old Georgians saw their long run of successive victories ended by a thrilling 5-5 draw at Wimbledon.
The point wasn't enough to stop Holcombe moving above Wimbledon into third, with Wimbledon finishing fourth, Hampstead fifth and Oxted sixth.
East Grinstead will join Beeston in the playoff pools after they won 4-2 at Richmond, Beeston helping the West Sussex club by beating Cardiff & Met 4-0 in Wales, to enable East Grinstead to qualify on goal difference.
At Paddington Recreation Ground, where as with all the other Premier Division matches, the game started at 1800, Surbiton knew that they were going to finish second and Hampstead knew they were destined to finish fifth.
Surbiton got off to a lightning start, an excellent passing move ending with Jake Payton finding Jake Smith in the circle, Smith diving to poke the ball over the goal-line after just 46 seconds.
Hampstead found themselves two goals in arrears after eight minutes, Gareth Furlong following up his hat-trick at Wimbledon with another penalty corner conversion, this time clinically finding the backboard from Surbiton's first award.
Hampstead battled back in the 22nd minute, Matt Guise-Brown converting the home team's second and final penalty corner to halve their deficit.
Surbiton forced two successive penalty corners in the third quarter and Luke Taylor's shot from the second was illegally stopped on the line to give the visitors a penalty stroke, only for Hampstead goalkeeper Toby Reynolds-Cotterill to save from Conor Williamson in the 48th minute.
Nine minutes later, Hampstead experienced a deja-vu moment as Surbiton's fifth and final penalty corner also resulted in a penalty stroke award. Taylor stepped up to slot the ball past Reynolds-Cotterill and against the backboard to put Surbiton 3-1 ahead.
With nine minutes to play, Reynolds-Cotterill swept the ball away from another Surbiton attack, only for Rob Farrington to send the ball into the Hampstead net and complete a 4-1 victory.
Euan Gilmour and Liam Ansell both scored twice in Wimbledon's 5-5 home draw with Old Georgians. Sam Ward's first half hat-trick plus goals from Tom Carson and Chris Griffiths gave Old Georgians a 5-4 lead, but Fred Newbold equalised with 12 minutes remaining to end Old Georgians' run of successive wins.
Holcombe were clinical at Oxted, running out 5-0 winners, Teague Marcano scoring twice with Alex Pendle, Tom O'Keeffe and Tom Russell also scoring.
The playoff pools will consist:
Pool A: Old Georgians; Wimbledon; Hampstead & Westminster; East Grinstead.
Pool B: Surbiton; Holcombe; Oxted; Beeston.
Fixtures:
5 April: Surbiton v Beeston
12 April: Surbiton v Oxted
26 April: Surbiton v Holcombe
Beeston finished six points clear of East Grinstead in the Lower Six, Henry Croft scoring yet again with Gareth Griffiths, Alasdair Richmond and Jack Stamp also on target for the Nottingham club.
Cardiff's hopes of qualifying were ended as East Grinstead won 4-2 at Richmond, Kurt Lovett, Isaac Farrant, Alex Sheldon and Simon Faulkner clinching the West Sussex club's place after Richmond led 2-0 courtesy of a Josh Smith brace.
Cardiff's only consolation is that with only three games left, they are safe from relegation as they have a twelve point advantage over eleventh placed Bowdon. Bowdon scored first, but lost 2-1 at home to Southgate after Tom Ainsworth scored for the Altrincham club in the tenth minute. Jack Middleton and Joe Hillyer scored to boost the London club's hopes of avoiding relegation.
With the last three rounds of fixtures to be scheduled, Bowdon and Richmond could potentially be relegated next weekend.
Reading and Brooklands Manchester University will play in the Premier Division next season after winning Division One South and Division One North respectively. Loughborough Students missed out on promotion from Division One North for the second season running by finishing second again.
Surbiton Men's second team won promotion from the Conference East to Division One after beating Hampstead & Westminster 2s 4-2 at Sugden Road on Sunday afternoon.
Morgan Males, Freddie Lett, Will Haspel and Jack Hobkirk scored for Surbiton with Jack O'Meara and Jordan Turnbull replying for Hampstead.
London Wayfarers lost 2-1 at home to Wimbledon 2s and finished three points behind Surbiton 2s.
Surbiton 2s are the first second team to play at Division One level since the current divisional structure was introduced in 2019-20.
Supporters who were unable to attend Sugden Road on Sunday can watch the match via the Surbiton Hockey Club channel on You Tube here.