A 12 point Saturday !

Yesterday (Feb 10th) our Mens and Womens 1st and 2nd Teams secured four wins from four matches.  Click through for more...

On Saturday there were four imporant league matches to take place, each providing an opportunity for three points.  The Mens 1st Team made the long journey to Cardiff & Met, the Womens 1st Team to Reading, while the Mens 2nd Team faced Crawley 1s and the Womens 2nd Team Brighton & Hove 3s.

EG Mens 2s got things going at 13:30 with a 9:1 win against Crawley 1st Team.  The win keeps the team in second place in the South East Mens Division 1 West, but 5 points behind league leaders Guildford.

EG Womens 2s followed up at 15:00 with an 8:0 win in their South East Division 1 West match vs Brighton & Hove 3s.  This result keeps the 2nd Team at the top of the table although second placed Knole Park are only two points behind and have a game in hand.  Scorers for the Womens 2s were:  Betsy Burden, Kim Christinson-McNee, Talya Harvey (x2), Connie Pennington (x2), Autumn Bowden, Summer Knight-Thompson.

Next up was EG's Womens 1st team, returning to Premier League action for the first time since securing the Indoor Super6s at Derby.  Playing Reading for the second time this season and for the second time away at Reading, the team was looking to put in a strong performance.  The previous match between EG and second placed Reading ended 4:3 in EG's favour following an exciting match.  EG scored in the 17th minute (Grace Balsdon penalty corner) and the 33rd minute (Tess Howard field goal) - both just within moments of the end of the respective quarters.  Sandwiched between these two EG goals was a Reading field goal so the teams went in with EG 2:1 up at half time.  Tess Howard extended EG's lead in the 3rd quarter with another field goal in characteristic style (twisting and turning to get that shot away) and Alex Malzer scored her first goal of the season in the 57th minute, deflecting a cleverly worked short corner.

The result keeps EG Women in third place behind Reading in second and Surbiton in 1st.  EG will host Surbiton on Feb 17th as part of the double header.

EG spectators all noted the excellent cohesion and team work in the team, with some very good hockey played by the whole group.

The day concluded with EG Mens 1st Team, having made the lengthy journey to Cardiff to play their return fixture against Cardiff & Met.  In the first Phase of the season, EG had managed to salvage a winner in the final play of the match to win 2:1.  You an relive that goal and the dramatic commentary from Ollie Smart and Ollie Clift below:

On Saturday the outcome was the same (an EG win) but the result was slightly different.  Cardiff & Met went ahead in the 8th minute from a penalty corner, but Hugh Pembroke equalised in the 24th minute.  Max Lowrey's corner in the 27th minute gave EG the lead and Simon Faulkner scored a penalty stroke on the 66th minute after an EG corner was judged to have been saved illegally.  Simon's goal turned out to be the winner, as Cardiff & Met secured a second goal in the 69th minute as the threw everything forward.

The result puts EG Men at the top of the "Lower 6" in Phase II, one point ahead of Oxted and two points ahead of Beeston who will be visiting EG next weekend on Feb 17th for the double header.

Saturday's away game against Cardiff & Met can be watched back at the Cardiff & Met YouTube link below.

https://www.youtube.com/live/K2v5-Ru6cF0?si=TAqnIYGaTYwESzXe