Comment

Rover Oxford men gave themselves a good chance of avoiding the drop in South League Premier Division 2 with a remarkable 8-5 win over mid-table Winchester.

Dan Smyth and Rich Beer both smashed four goals as Rover recorded back-to-back victories.

Rover took an early, and probably undeserved lead thanks to Smyth's penalty stroke, and he then doubled the advantage through a clever lob over the oncoming keeper, following a long through ball from sweeper Duncan Buckmaster.

Winchester hit back through an Adrian Wilkinson penalty corner, but Rover scored two more quick goals, first from Beer after rounding the keeper and then Smyth, who completed his hat-trick.

Winchester pulled one back to make it 4-2 at the break.

Two further strikes from Beer, including his hat-trick goal, came early in the second half, both from well-worked penalty corner routines before Winchester pulled a third back.

Beer completed his 15th of the season and Smyth his 27th of the campaign before the finish.

Rover Oxford now know that a victory away to top-of-the-table Tulse Hill & Dulwich will almost guarantee safety.

Banbury are set for a thrilling end to the season after they beat Tulse Hill & Dulwich 4-2.

The result leaves them three points behind in third place with two games to go, but with a game in hand over leaders Tulse Hill and second-placed Epsom, who are ahead of them only on goals scored.

Without Tim Craven, who was at an England Under 18 training camp, Banbury started slowly and Tulse Hill took the lead through James Huntley.

Top scorer Andy Balchin then rounded goalkeeper Phil Smith to score a second.

Craig Irvine tappped home Simon Broardman's pass at the far post to begin Banbury's revival and Dave Clark tied it up at the break by slammming home a short corner.

George Brooker robbed Will Nurse to fire Banbury in front for the first time and Boardman made it 4-2 with a deflection from a short corner before Nurse hardly helped Tulse Hill's cause by getting sin-binned for a second time in the game.

City of Oxford collected a vital three points in Middlesex, Berks, Bucks & Oxon Division 1 by beating Wallingford 2-1 at Oxford Brookes.

City dominated large portions of the first half and went ahead through Andy Bell.

A second goal followed as a short corner was hit onto the post and Alex Cock deflected in.

Wallingford retaliated with a goal from open play ten minutes from time, but City held out.

Robin Staniland bagged a brace as Abingdon recorded their third Division 1 win in succession with a 3-2 victory over Bracknell.

Bracknell took the lead when Dan Raye slotted the ball home at a penalty corner.

Abingdon levelled from their first penalty corner of the match when Staniland tucked away the rebound after Will Trigg's strike was blocked on the line.

Abingdon then took the lead with the goal of the match as Josh Tomlinson and Andy Ringsell combined to carve through the Bracknell defence, leaving Ringsell to finish off with an easy tap-in at the left post.

Five minutes later, Abingdon took a commanding 3-1 lead, Staniland once again touching in a penalty corner rebound, this time after Ron Smith's strike was saved.

In the second half, Abingdon found themselves reduced to nine men as first Staniland and then David Hibbert were shown yellow cards.

But the only goal of the half was scored by Bracknell once Abingdon were back to full strength as Jon Paul held off two defenders and the goalkeeper before finding the back of the net. Witney chalked up an impressive 4-0 win at Bicester.

Other scores: Holcombe 2nd 1, Hawks 2nd 2; City 2nd 2 (S Bell 2), W Hampstead 2nd 0; Slough 2nd 2, Banbury 2nd 3 (T Boardman, G Sambrook, J O'Driscoll); Hawks 3rd 1, Eastcote 4th 6; Eastcote 5th 5, City 3rd 3; Banbury 3rd 2, Mill Hill 3rd 4; Hawks 5th 0, W Hampstead 6th 6; Sonning 4th 5, Banbury 4th 2; Richmond Vets 4, Hawks Senators 2; Hawks Falcons 1 (I Sobey), Woking Vets 5.

Oxon U16 League: Oxford Hawks 3 (C Blanchard, T Sobey, C Green), Witney 0.

Oxon U14 League: Oxford Hawks 22 (T Simpson 5, T Bennett 3, J Rogers 3, T Blong 3, F Webster 2, P Nagle 2, T Blackburn 2, M Fricker, S Chilvers), Bicester 0.

4:17pm Monday 17th March 2008

Print

Email this

Comment

Add your comment

Name:
Email: *
Location:
**
	e.g. 123-123
Comment: Please note: All HTML tags will be ignored. Format Text:
By posting a comment, I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms of use. Comments are not moderated but we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention and we may delete inappropriate postings. Please treat other people with respect. You must not post anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory. Remember, you are personally liable for what you post on this site. If you wish to complain about a comment, contact us here.
* Your email address will not be displayed ** To avoid register now or login