Source: www.guardian.co.tt

The England-based duo of senior men’s national hockey players, Kwandwane Browne and Mickel Pierre and their Canterbury club managed to avoid automatic demotion to the English Hockey League after some last day heroics earlier this month. Canterbury, which only gained promotion to the ten-team Premier Division last year  escaped the drop by edging fellow promoted club. Brooklands MU 2-1 in their final league match of the season thereby condemning their opponents to the drop. It was the ultimate battle as cellar placed Canterbury hosted ninth placed Brooklands MU. The match was always likely to be a closely contested fixture and so it proved with Canterbury requiring a last gasp winner from Michael Farrer to record their third win of the season—and the double over Brooklands—to earn a stay of execution and enter the EHL Promotion Tournament. Last gasp might even be an understatement as, with the whistle blown for full time, Canterbury completed their penalty corner routine which ended in a goal for Farrer. 

It meant Brooklands were not even afforded the slightest chance of restoring parity; it will have come as a bitter blow as a draw would have sufficed for Brooklands to avoid immediate demotion. Tom Butt had opened the scoring for Canterbury in the eighth minute, a lead which was held until the 43rd minute when David Seddon equalised through a penalty corner strike prior to the late winner. Canterbury will now contest the four-team promotion playoffs with Men’s Conference East champions Southgate, Conference West winner (University of Exeter) and North champions, University of Durham. The play-offs are used to help determine which teams are promoted and relegating in the  EHL.

The winners of the three conferences (North, East and West) and Canterbury, ninth in the Premier Division will now meet in a round-robin playoff series with two places in the top Divison up for grabs, the bottom team in the Premier Division having automatically been relegated. Southgate (42 points) finished the season on a high with a 5-1 home win over Harleston Magpies, ending four points ahead of Old Loughtonians. Indian Gymkhan, the club of local player Terrence Baptiste was joint sixth with Wimbledon and Oxted, each with 22 points. Durham’s (39 points) triumph was much more dramatic, as it claimed the title on the final day with a 7-1 whipping of Harbone to end three points ahead of Sheffield Hallam which drew  3-3 with  Belper while Doncaster (33) was beaten by Olton & West Warwicks.

FIXTURES

EHL Promotion Relegation Tournament
April 30—Men
Durham University vs Southgate
Canterbury vs v University of Exeter
May 1—Men
Southgate vs Canterbury
University of Exeter vs Durham University
May 2—Men
University of Exeter vs Southgate
Canterbury vs Durham University