ROTHERHAM STUN LANCASTER AS CHELTENHAM GO TOP

The battle for the National League title promises to be closer than for a number of years this season following some shock results at Loughborough University.

2007 Season : Phase 2	PLD	W	D	L	F	A	PTS	GD
Cheltenham	11	9	1	1	164	101	19	63
Lancaster	11	8	1	2	183	89	17	94
Bristol	11	8	0	3	129	91	16	38
Manchester	10	7	0	3	129	84	14	45
Rotherham	10	6	0	4	127	103	12	24
2007 Season : Phase 2	PLD	W	D	L	F	A	PTS	GD
Welsh Wanderers	11	5	1	5	123	136	11	-13
Penguin	11	3	3	5	87	125	9	-38
Polytechnic	11	1	1	9	69	126	3	-57
Portobello	11	1	0	10	102	172	2	-70
Otter	11	2	1	8	98	184	-1	-86
2007 Season : with GB	PLD	W	D	L	F	A	PTS	GD
Rotherham	2	2	0	0	21	12	4	9
Cheltenham	2	2	0	0	22	16	4	6
Lancaster	2	1	0	1	21	11	2	10
GB Juniors	2	1	0	1	26	23	2	3
Manchester	2	0	0	2	17	30	0	-13
Bristol	2	0	0	2	12	27	0	-15

The weekend began with Lancaster comprehensively avenging a defeat earlier in the month by Bristol. But then Lancaster crashed to Rotherham. It all meant that Cheltenham, who won their matches against Manchester and Bristol, snatched a two-point advantage at the top of the table.

Scott Carpenter contributed six goals in Lancaster’s 16-4 demolition of Bristol, who had Craig Figes excluded for misconduct in the final quarter. But Carpenter failed to register a single goal against Adam Scholefield-inspired Rotherham, who took a 3-1 first period lead and eventually won 7-5.

Meanwhile, a dominant third period performance made the difference for Cheltenham in an 11-8 defeat of Manchester. Max Gerazimov and Rob Parker both scored three for the winners. Cheltenham’s clash with Bristol was even all the way through until the last period, when Cheltenham went from 8-7 up to win 11-8. Their chief marksmen were David Taylor and Alex Parsonage with three apiece.

Dan Laxton led Welsh Wanderers to double success with seven goals in a 13-7 defeat of Otter and five more against Portobello who, despite an eight-goal haul from Fraser Rutherford, went down 14-11.

Dan Laxton . . . 12 goals in two wins by Welsh Wanderers. Picture: Shelley Lambert

Bruce Elder punished his former club Portobello with six goals in Penguin’s 13-7 win. Otter, stranded at the bottom of the table following a recent deduction of points, raised their spirits with a 10-7 victory over Polytechnic. The Poly-Penguin derby ended in a 3-3 stalemate.

GB Juniors’ debut against the league’s top five began with a 14-7 defeat against Rotherham. The Juniors beat Manchester 19-9, but there was considerable disappointment that Manchester chose to field a very young and inexperienced side.