Umpiring role for skipper
Newmarket captain Harry Mangell took on the role
of umpire when their appointed official failed to turn up for
Saturday's East Hockey League Division Two North match.
Only having travelled with eleven men, the away
side was forced to play with ten players. Another disadvantage the
away had was playing on grass, a surface they had not played on for
a while.
With regular first team goalkeeper Jon Hall
absent, Lee Blades took on the job. Paul Young was also missing and
Bob Townson injured.
However, Newmarket couldn't have had a better
start. Good hard tackling by Greg Cummins put Adrian Gurnell through
and the speedy South African winger whizzed past the goalkeeper to
put the ball into an empty net. Newmarket kept Lowestoft at bay
until the last few minutes when their centre-forward broke through
and was adjudged to have been upended by Cummins. The penalty flick
was converted, 'keeper Blades diving the wrong way.
It was not a memorable match and Newmarket look
forward to returning to Astroturf this weekend when they play Ely at
Ely.
Wisbech III 4 - 0
Newmarket Men II
On a muddy pitch Newmarket showed real
determination to avoid losing by more to the team who are top of the
league table.
After a goalless first half in which Newmarket
battled really hard, Wisbech showed their dominance by scoring four
times in the second half.
Great defending by Batty, Morris and Wilson,
along with help from halves Level and Leaman could not stop a
dominant Wisbech team.
Newmarket gave young Matt Jack his second team
debut but missed the five key players who were absent.
County trials
Adrian Gurnell, Lee Blades, Dave Badcock and
Jimmy Robinson attended their second set of Suffolk Under-21 trials
on Sunday but don't yet know whether they've been chosen for the
squad to face Hertfordshire on 15 January.
