Surbiton given stern test at University of Exeter

3:21pm Wednesday 1st September 2010

By Sean Cotter & Colin Pike

Surbiton men’s first XI spent a second successive pre-season training weekend away from home, this time at the University of Exeter.

In the event, because of injuries and unavailabilties it was a depleted squad of only 16 players that made the long trip, three of them for just one of the days.

Leaving at 6.30am on Saturday for a morning’s training followed by a 4pm match against their hosts took its second-half toll as National Premier Division Surbiton slipped from a 1-0 half-time deficit to an eventual 4-0 defeat to their hosts, who had been immediately relegated back to the Conference West at the end of last season.

But a good night’s sleep, followed by a morning’s tactical video session, worked wonders as the visitors bounced back to a 7-0 victory, from 2-0 up at the interval, in Sunday’s second fixture, which started at noon.

Captain Tim Pinnock scored a hat-trick of penalty corners with two more of them deflected in by Nick Cooper and James Ashcroft, with Cooper going on to make it a hat-trick with two open-play goals.

Surbiton visit Conference West Havant for a pre-season practice game on Saturday (2pm), with a return fixture at Sugden Lane on Sunday (also 2pm).

Surbiton go into this weekend’s double-header in confident mood after registering their first pre-season victory at last season’s England Hockey League Conference West runners-up, Barnes Hounslow Ealing, 2-0 on Monday night.

The Elmbridge-based side’s penalty corner routine was effective for the second match running, as first, Emma Rowland-Jones struck in the eighth minute; and then former Reading player, Vicky Bryant deflected another Rowland-Jones shot high into the net with five minutes to play.

Barnes Hounslow Ealing have the chance for revenge tomorrow (Saturday) when they visit Reed’s School for a noon showdown. On Sunday, again at noon at Reed’s School; Surbiton face Havant, of the South Clubs’ Women’s Hockey League Division One.

Surbiton will be without Maddie Tait who has been selected to play for England’s U18s at the Sainsbury’s UK School Games in Newcastle. England will play Ulster today (Friday); Wales on Saturday; and Scotland on Sunday. The team which finishes top of the table will be declared champions; and England will be aiming for a championship hat-trick, having won in both 2008 and 2009.