Slough Ladies indoors in Europe, Mike Haymonds reports
Feb 21

SLOUGH Ladies recovered from two defeats on the opening day of the EuroHockey Indoor Club Champions Cup in Madrid by winning their remaining three games to finish in fifth place and preserve top-tier status for Bowdon Hightown next season.

The initial pool defeats by the eventual finalists Dinamo Sumchanka, from the Ukraine (2-9) and the German favourites Club an der Alster (2-6) ruled out the prospect for Slough of a semi-final place and a possible medal by the end of day one.

Their final group match with the Russians Vympel Korolev, who had also suffered two losses, was therefore a must-win game with the winner taking three points into the ‘relegation’ pool.

Slough were always in control, running out 3-0 victors, thanks to goals from Jane Smith and Fiona Grenham (2) although they should have scored a lot more.

Their winning streak continued with a 3-2 defeat of the Austrians Wels HC, courtesy of a howler by the Austrian keeper which was punished by a quick- thinking Jane Smith to complete her hat-trick in the dying seconds.

With relegation avoided, Slough could play their final game without any pressure and they produced their best hockey of the tournament to beat Ritm Grodno from Belarus, medallists for the past six years, more comfortably than the 5-3 final scoreline suggests. Smith added four more goals to take her total to nine with Greenham scoring the other.

Slough’s improvement after the opening day was helped by an improved corner success rate from Smith and Greenham but their penalty strokes were woeful, with only one from six converted.

Slough coach Sue Chandler’s verdict on her team’s performance was “very pleasing.”

“In Europe you get punished for little mistakes which you get away with at home and our two defeats on the first day reflected that."

“Despite the two losses I was not unhappy as we’d competed well in both first halves before falling away in the second periods."

“Apart from the game with Ukraine, our defence was pretty sound and we weren’t conceding too many short corners."

“The Austrians presented a different tactical challenge which we coped with well and against the Belarussians we raised our game another notch.”

“I got what I expected from our experienced outfield trio of Mandy Nicholson, Jane Smith and Fiona Greenham (the latter playing for the full 200 minutes)."

“But I got more than expected from the younger players whose rose to the occasion when they were given more pitch time in the later games.”

Slough skipper Lynnette Smith said: “I’m disappointed with our final placing but not at the way we played.

“After the first two defeats we achieved the best ranking we could.”

This competition is now much more competitive than in the 1990s when Slough won three silver medals and the honours usually went to German, English and Spanish teams.

Since then the East Europeans, with the benefit of competitive indoor leagues, have become a force and the Dutch are taking indoor hockey more seriously. The gap between these nations and the dominant Germans has narrowed but English clubs will continue to struggle to make semi-finals until they can get tougher preparation at home.

Club an der Alster beat Dinamo Sumchanka 7-5 in the final to maintain Germany’s record of winning all 20 editions of this competition.
Larensche MHC, from Holland, took the bronze medal by beating the hosts Club de Campo 4-2 while the Austrians and Russians were relegated.

SLOUGH: L Smith, Ellis, Nicholson, Greenham, Ball, J Smith, Cordier, Bell , Cox, Penny, Wimshurst.