EHL Premier Division Review | Week Five

Women's Premier Division

Hampstead & Westminster’s 100% start to the season was ended at Loughborough Students where they were held to a 2-2 draw.  Loughborough had taken a first quarter lead through Olivia Breed but Hampstead fought back to 2-1 up with goals from Holly Hunt and Sophia Martin only for Amy Cradden to equalise in the last minute for Loughborough. Surbiton who are also unbeaten, won 3-1 at Bowdon take over at the top on goal difference. Erica Sanders, Darcy Bourne and Georgie Gardens, put them 3-0 up in Cheshire before Lucy Smith grabbed a late consolation for the home team, Bowdon’s seventh different scorer of their seven goals to date.

Birmingham University, who were third going into the day’s play, saw the form book upset as they were beaten for the first time at Nottingham University, Nottingham's first points of the season came in a 2-1 win thanks to first half goals from Kate Barker and Freya Robinson.  Coca Hall scored in the second half for Birmingham, the fifth successive game she has found the target, but the visitors couldn’t find an equaliser. 

Reading replace Birmingham in third thanks to a 3-1 win at still pointless Clifton Robinsons, Lizzie Neal scoring two of their goals.

East Grinstead are fourth after a narrow 1-0 win at Barnes. Millie Giglio scored the only goal of the game as East Grinstead extended their unbeaten run to four games. Barnes remain without a point.

Wimbledon jumped from 9th to 5th thanks to a 1-0 win at Durham University, their third shut-out in four games.

Open/Men's Premier Division

There was a surprise in the Open/Men's Premier Division where leaders Old Georgians were beaten 2-0 at home by Hampstead and Westminster. OGs, returning to league action after their Euro Hockey League success last weekend, were undone by first half goals from Damon Steffens and Rupert Shipperley and were unable to recover. This was the first time OGs have failed to score in a regular season game for almost four years. The result means that Surbiton, 5-2 winners over East Grinstead, take over at the top with four wins out of four whilst Hampstead join OGs and two other teams on 10 points.

The Surbiton - East Grinstead game was evenly poised at 1-1 at halftime Jacob Payton scoring for Surbiton, Jonty Elmes’s equalising for EG just before the break scoring for the fourth consecutive game. However the home team had by far the better of the second half with a second for Payton and further goals for Gareth Furlong, Nick Bandurak, the second match running he has netted against a former club, and Conor Williamson whilst Joe Farmer scored the visitor’s second.

Holcombe are also on 10 points after a thrilling 4-4 draw with Oxted. Holcombe came from 2-0 and 3-1 down to lead 4-3 with four minutes left including two more goals for Teague Marcano, now the league’s leading scorer, but Oliver Bennett converted a 67th minute stroke for Oxted to share the points.

Wimbledon also move onto 10 points, and along with Surbiton are the only other team unbeaten, after a 2-1 win at bottom of the table Beeston. The Bees made them work very hard for the points and Will Prentice cancelled out Sam Hooper’s second half goal for the visitors only for Ben Francis to grab the winner with five minutes to go.

Reading won 4-1 at Brooklands MU. The game was 1-1 at half time, but Reading pulled away with three unanswered goals in the second half. A solitary Scott Rawlings strike was enough for Cardiff and Met to beat Southgate 1-0 and earned the Welshmen their second win of the season Southgate stay second bottom with a point from their five matches to date.