NEW LEADERS SURBITON AWAY TO REIGNING EH CHAMPIONS ON SATURDAY

by Seán Cotter 8 October 2009

After its first three weekends, Surbiton stand proudly atop the fledgling England Hockey National Premier Division.

But long-serving player and now Surbiton joint captain, Tim Pinnock, is not getting carried away by his team’s exalted position at this early stage of the season.

“Naturally, we’re really pleased with our results so far,” he says, “but we’ve got some really tough fixtures to come and I think I’m going to resort to the old football mantra of saying we’re taking one game at a time.”

And they don’t get much tougher than Saturday’s trip (10 October) away to reigning champions East Grinstead, with an early evening start of 5.30pm.

The Sussex club are full of goals, having won their first two fixtures 4-3 and 6-5, before going down 5-4 at Reading last week despite being 3-1 up at one stage.

Their South African dragflicker Gareth Carr, who was signed from Weybridge-based Old Georgians in the close season, is in particularly deadly form with his penalty corners, having scored from eight so far for his new club.

But that is only one better than Surbiton’s European goal medallist Matt Daly.

It should prove an interesting trip for one of Surbiton’s new recruits, Alberto Esteban Velazquez. He turned down the opportunity of joining the rural Sussex club for the bright lights of Long Ditton, where he now resides in the flat above Surbiton’s clubhouse with another new signing, his erstwhile Club de Campo clubmate Alejandro Iglesias Bilbao.

Spanish is rapidly becoming the second language at Sugden Road where the pair, together with the club’s Gibraltarean coach, Karl Stagno, have been christened “the three amigos”. But Alberto denies the rumour that one of his forebears used to be a well-known painter.

Last Saturday (3 October), in another late afternoon start (4pm), Surbiton’s opponents were newly-promoted Conference West champions University of Exeter, already with two defeats behind them.

Open-play efforts by Esteban Velazquez and Pinnock in the 8th and 12th minutes gave the home side a comfortable 2-0 half-time lead.

Two more open-play goals within five minutes of the restart from Esteban Velazquez again (39 minutes) and Ben Hawes (40 minutes) threatened a rout, only for a rare defensive lapse to let in Ben Edge to pull one back from open play three minutes later.

Surbiton keeper Chris Bristow put a stop to the mini-revival by a saving a 51st-minute penalty stroke from Tom Woolven before a first league goal for Surbiton from Joseph (Sam) Middleton in open play on 53 minutes and a Daly penalty corner five minutes later stretched the lead to five.

Exeter did pull one back from open play through James Grannell six minutes from the end, but it still left Surbiton with a one better goal difference than Reading, the only other hundred per cent team in the league.

Copy for “Surrey Comet” and “Surrey Advertiser Elmbridge Edition” 9 October 2009