Source:www.guardian.co.tt
By Nigel Simon
National hockey players, Kwandwane Browne and Mickel Pierre and their English Hockey League club, Canterbury will be competing in either the East, West or North Conference next season after one year in the Premier Division. This after Canterbury, which escaped demotion on the final day of the regular season last month after a last minute 2-1 win over Brooklands MU, ended at the bottom of the four-team Promotion/Relegation tournament, Monday.
In their final match, Canterbury went under to the University of Durham, 5-2. For Canterbury Liam Foster and Tom Butt scored in the first-half for a 2-1 lead but Durham which had Paddy Harman on target in the first-half got other goals from Dan Coultas, Matt Hodgson (two) and Mark Gallowat to secure a come-from-behind win. But the win was not enough for Durham to gain promotion either as it was edged out by Southgate and Exeter on goal-difference after all three clubs ended with six points from three matches.
Exeter topped the group with a similar 5-2 win over Southgate in Sunday’s other match played at the same time. A day earlier, Pierre was on target for Canterbury, in a 5-4 loss to Southgate on Sunday while University of Durham rebounded from its 4-0 loss to Southgate with a similar 5-4 triumph over Exeter.
On Saturday’s first day of matches, Canterbury, which finished second from bottom in the Premier Division regular season was beaten 3-1 by Exeter. Brooklands was relegated automatically while the three other clubs in the playoffs were winners of their three Conferences;, Southgate (East), Exeter (West) and Durham (North).