REVENGE IS SWEET FOR PORTOBELLO

Any prospects of Hucknall repeating their victory earlier this season against Portobello were quickly extinguished at Loughborough University as the impressive Scots raced into a 7-1 lead in the first period.

The momentum may have slowed a little as the game progressed – Hucknall actually won the third quarter 3-0 – but an eventual 15-10 victory was comfortable enough, making certain that the Division Two championship would head north of the border. Bruce Elder (5), Fraser Rutherford (4) and Neilson Rutherford (3) led the Portobello goal spree.

2005 Season PLD W D L F A PTS GD
Portobello 18 17 0 1 308 151 34 157
Welsh Wanderers 18 14 2 2 237 123 30 114
Hucknall 18 12 1 5 181 146 25 35
Solihull 18 11 1 6 176 139 23 37
Invicta 18 6 4 8 166 194 16 -28
Leeds 18 6 3 9 158 210 15 -52
Reading 18 5 2 11 156 193 12 -37
Grantham 18 5 2 11 155 215 12 -60
Sutton & Cheam 18 3 1 14 136 230 7 -94
Newton Abbot 18 3 0 15 216 288 4 -72

Left to Right : Earyll Johnston, Garry Ward, Keith Anderson, Ben Johnston, Fraser Rutherford, Bruce Elder, Neilson Rutherford, David Kipling, Ramon Vulvona.

The Loughborough weekend produced plenty of exciting and close action as teams battled to improve their final league positions. There were four drawn games and three more that ended in tense one-goal victories.

Welsh Wanderers were twice held to 9-9 draws – by Hucknall and Invicta – which meant they finished as runners-up four points adrift of Portobello. Hucknall were third.

Portobello began the Loughborough programme with a 10-5 win against the much-improved Invicta side. A 22-11 hammering of Newton Abbot was notable for an 11-goal tally by Elder, who finished the season as the division’s top scorer with a superb total of 89.

Welsh Wanderers began strongly against Hucknall – they were 5-1 up after the first period and 7-3 ahead after two. Then Welsh exclusions began to take a toll and Hucknall eventually levelled at 8-8 midway through the last with a Tom Archer goal. Left-hander Carl Wyatt then scored for Wanderers but Adam Ellis squared a fine match from a man-up situation with just 20 seconds remaining.

Wanderers also frittered away a useful lead against Invicta. They were 8-5 ahead at the end of the third and 9-7 with less than two minutes to go. Then, in the space of 22 seconds, Steve Leathwood and John Hilliger slotted the goals that gave the Kent side a hard-earned point. Dan Laxton scored five for Wanderers and Leathwood four for Invicta.

One of the best games of the weekend came at the very end of the programme as Hucknall edged out a determined Leeds side 8-7 thanks to a man-up goal by Adrian Taylor 24 seconds from the end. Lorenzo Clark had kept Leeds very much in contention with four goals and there were two from former Polish under-21 cap Piotr Cichy.

Cichy’s powerful shooting was also the feature of Leeds’ last minute 16-15 win over Newton Abbot. Even then, he was marginally outgunned by the deadly Margetts goal-scoring duo – Steve scored seven and brother Andy six for the Devon club.

Sutton & Cheam again looked a better side than their lowly ninth place. They drew 9-9 with Grantham and then picked up two more points in a tense 9-8 win over Reading. Sutton, with five-goal Keiran Bayles in good shooting form, led 8-5 after three periods. Reading then recovered to 8-8 before Ross Johnson claimed the winning goal with two and half minutes left.

Nick Caulfield (4), Spencer Wright (3) and James Hadlow (3) were the main scorers for Grantham in a 14-10 victory over Newton Abbot.

Solihull finished in fourth place. They beat Leeds 8-5 and Grantham 10-4 but needed a back-handed goal from the pit by Simon Pemberton with 19 seconds remaining to salvage a 5-5 draw with Reading.

Leading Goal Scorers    

Club Goals Games
1 B Elder Portobello 89 18
2 A Margetts      Newton Abbot        87 17
3 S Margetts Newton Abbot 66 18
4 F Rutherford Portobello 63 15
5 A Holt Welsh Wanderers 48 16
6 K Anderson Portobello 44 18
7 S Leathwood Invicta 43 17
8 J Drinkwater Solihull 41 18
8 C Taylor Welsh Wanderers 41 18
10 R Toolen Reading 39 18

 

Exclusion Offences    

Total
Grantham 128
Hucknall 156
Invicta 169
Leeds 155
Newton Abbot 168
Portobello 123
Reading 134
Solihull 101
Sutton & Cheam 121
Welsh Wanderers 111

 

LOUGHBOROUGH   White     Blue    
Sat:  Nov:  26 15.00   Grantham 14   Newton Abbot 10  
  16.00   Solihull 8   Leeds 5  
  17.00   Portobello 10   Invicta 5  
  18.00   Hucknall 9   Welsh Wand's 9  
  19.00   Sutton & Cheam 9   Grantham 9  
  20.00   Solihull 5   Reading 5  
  21.00   Leeds 16   Newton Abbot 15  
Sun:  Nov:  27 13.00   Hucknall 10   Portobello 15  
  14.00   Sutton & Cheam 5   Welsh Wand's 15  
  15.00   Invicta 10   Reading  7  
16.00   Solihull 10   Grantham  4  
17.00   Portobello 22   Newton Abbot 11  
18.00   Invicta 9   Welsh Wand's 9  
19.00   Sutton & Cheam 9   Reading 8  
20.00   Leeds 7   Hucknall 8  
               
BATH     White     Blue    
Sat:  Nov:  12 11.00   Solihull 6   Welsh Wand's 7  
  12.00   Portobello 17   Reading 10  
  13.00   Leeds 7   Sutton & Cheam 6  
  14.00   Grantham 6   Hucknall 10  
  15.00   Solihull 7   Invicta 9  
  16.00   Newton Abbot                             8   Welsh Wand's 12  
  17.00   Portobello 21