League leaders Canterbury romped to their fourth successive win with a convincing 7-3 defeat of Brighton & Hove on Saturday to move four points clear of the field in the MHL Division One South.

It left Brighton, who had started brightly and taken the lead through Sam Rose, still looking for their first points of the season. Callum Lea, Tom Bean and Nathan Fouhy all scored twice for Canterbury with Hamish Roberts getting the other. Adam Flett and Joe Naughalty both converted penalty corners in the final quarter for the visitors, who trailed 3-1 at half-time.

Brighton's assistant coach Carlo Missirian felt his side were playing well and asking a lot of questions of Canterbury in the first half. The fourth goal, which came from an aerial pass which was deflected to a striker free in the circle, "killed us" he said. "Our heads went down a bit after that." There were a further five goals in the final quarter, three more to the home side.

"Canterbury are a good side and they are top of the league for a reason," said Missirian. "Their tempo is good and they are well drilled."

Brighton face Richmond, who have settled well after winning promotion last season, at home on Sunday (1pm).

Mark Loughrey scored a hat-trick in Old Loughtonians 4-1 win over Sevenoaks while Teddington scored all of their goals in the second-half in beating Bath Buccaneers 4-0. Richmond also scored four without reply against Havant  and Old Cranleighan went down 3-2 at home to Exeter University.

Brighton have been ordered by England Hockey to replay their abandoned match with Old Loughtonians - but must now travel to Essex for the match. The visitors were leading 4-3 when the floodlights at Blatchington Mill failed with seven minutes of the game remaining on September 30. The prospective date for the replay is December 10.

Lewes 3s 4
BHHC 5s 3

Andrew Bromley reports: "A very tough result to take, especially as we came from 3-0 down to 3-3 only to concede at the end of the second half. Again we dominated possession for the majority of the game and again we couldn't convert our chances - sadly we are specialists at finding goalkeepers in form. Thankfully that's the one and only time we play away at Lewes this season, so take the positives."

BHHC 6s 2 
Horsham 3s 3

Lee Cooper reports: "The only two teams with a 100% record met at Blatch on Saturday, and it did not disappoint. The Rocks are the top scorers in the division this season, and Horsham have the meanest defence, so something had to give.

The first five minutes were very cagey, like two boxers wanting to land the first blow but wary of being knocked out early. The first real chance came for Horsham in the seventh minute. A through ball caught the back line out, but Elliot was there as always to block the way to goal, and the shot went well wide.

Straight away, Horsham were on the attack again, a drilled pass to the back post was too quick for the forward, and he thankfully hit nothing but air. The Rocks were finding it hard to keep the ball against the Horsham press, and another chance for Horsham went begging as the final shot went narrowly past the far post. 

It was inevitable when Horsham took the lead on 21 minutes, a scuffed shot from a PC bobbled around the circle and the mishit wrong footed Elliot. This kicked the Rocks into action, Dave taking a quick free hit himself, squaring to Carlo who feinted to hit a reverse shot but Pascal Gross like he switched to his forehand and he thundered a great shot past the GK. 1-1.
 
On 30 minutes, the Rocks took the lead in clinical fashion and slightly against the run of play. Graham picked the pocket of the Horsham midfielder, fed Miles who in turn played a gem of a through ball to Jens. With a lot still to do, Jens squared the keeper up and slipped the ball under his despairing dive, 2-1 it remained till half time. 

A quiet second half exploded into life in the 53rd minute; a reverse slap into the circle was bundled over the line, a lucky goal and the only way Elliot was going to be beaten again - or was it? Two minutes later, Horsham cut the Rocks open disappointingly through the guts of the pitch, two passes bypassed the midfield and back line, and a calm finish meant Horsham took the lead again.

The Rocks tried in vain to force another equaliser and went close with five minutes to go from a PC. Unfortunately, it was not to be and the Rocks tasted defeat for the first time this season.But they can be proud of the performance and that they went toe to toe with the likely winners of the division - a promising season still awaits.
 
MoM Elliott.
DoD Harry (again) "Yes, Harry, Elliot does look different without his clothes on" (we think he meant GK kit)."

BHHC 8s 2
Lewes 5s 1

Richard Barnes reports: "Newly promoted to Division Three the 8s had fought bravely for the first three games but each time had fallen to a narrow defeat, so this match four was a chance to get the season properly started with some points. 

We started slowly, Lewes looking dangerous, but some decent saves from Dave Hodgkin and tight defending kept them out. We got our passing game together and had a strong 20 minutes. Annoyingly we got caught on the break and went a goal down. Lewes then had a great chance to extend the lead on half time but Dave kept them out so just the one goal down at the break. 

We lifted our game for the second half, forcing their goalie into action with a number of short corners. Eventually the pressure led to a well deserved equaliser, Kevin Mould slotting home. Good things were happening, Chris Allen hitting the post. Then after more pressure around the D, Simon Finn struck home and we had the lead. 

The last few minutes were tense with a brilliant save on the line from Gary Revel-Chion, and last ditch tackles from John Spearman. Two short corners to Lewes in the dying seconds, but these came to nothing and the points went to Brighton. Nice."

South Saxons 4s 4
BHHC 9s 0

Alistair  Thomson reports: "The team looked forward to the annual trip to the Old Saxon Burial Ground with trepidation. The curse of Horntye remained in the memory after a calamitous game last year that put paid to our title challenge. Still, it was a gloriously warm day in Brighton when we set out … what could possibly go wrong?

Boom! A27 closed, 90 minutes journey time to Old Saxon Burial Ground. 

Boom Number 2! Birthday Boy Nash’s battery was flat. Ah, but which battery you ask? His phone battery, body battery (that went flat years ago) or car battery? By process of elimination, it was quickly deduced that it must be his car battery and a hasty detour to Westdene Retirement Village was undertaken.

The journey developed into a north of the A27 scenic pub tour that could have been if we didn’t have a match to play, coupled with an outing from the AA South East book of best Sunday afternoon drives. There were many memorable moments which livened up the journey:

• Reedy pointing out cows, only to realise he was with 40/50-year-old men rather than his daughter;

Nash getting overly excited about the many sheep he saw, understandable as he is a trainee shepherd;

• A deep discussion regarding that if the cows sitting down are looking towards Hastings and the rest are standing up are looking the other way, does that mean we will get soaked?

Intermittently, the joviality was interrupted by communication from the College Love Bus, containing Doc and Wappy. Having made the schoolboy error of selecting the A259, they were all in a Telescombe Tizzy having been gridlocked there for an eternity. Well, stuck in a van with Wappy (post his Care in the Community school car parking shift) would seem like an eternity to the most tolerant of us.

Eventually enough players (10) arrived to start, the push back having been kindly delayed by Saxons.

Matt and Thompo quickly decided, with no Guru present, we had the freedom to play 4-4-1 in a diamond formation. Bliss! For the first 15 minutes, this plan worked a treat and the brave 9s matched the Saxons blow for blow. However, things soon started to go wrong as soon as the Love Bus contingent arrived. With no sense of urgency, they calmed strolled to the changing rooms, oblivious to the fact their teammates were one short. Doc continued where he left off last week, with some high-quality chatting. Despite this Doc was the only one in any state of readiness, and pushed our numbers back up to 11. Deep breath, outnumbered we had held off the marauding Saxon hordes.

The bliss was short lived. Myles ‘Kobe Beef’ Guru arrived eventually and was none too pleased to see no sign of presses or screens. In mitigation, without Wappy and Kobe present, none of the team had a clue about these newfangled concepts such as screens and presses. This was quickly rectified, with immediate results. Saxons took the lead, and held on to half time despite some good play from the Brighton youngsters who called their keeper into action several times.

No whiteboard at half time impacted the team talk as without visualisation the tactics were incomprehensible, and the chat quickly reverted to the staple points of “No reverse stick faffing” from Thompo and “STEP IN FRONT OF YOUR MAN” from College.

The second half quickly descended into a rerun of last season's debacle. The key points to note were:

• A number of comedy mix ups in the D leading to soft goals. Wappy notched one of these;

• Nash not receiving a birthday card from the umpire (unusual) for his sliding hack followed by squaring up with their overzealous midfielder;

• College’s jab tackle dance. No ball necessary;

• The cows were right, we got soaked.

The final score was 0-4 and the team only had themselves to blame as they lost focus in large parts of the game and managed to give more quality passes to the Saxons 119 than his own team did.

Wappy introduced a new award, the naughty chair, which understandably was awarded to Nash for his altercation. It will be interesting to see how portable it is on train trips and also how it stands up to regular use having only been strength tested to 83 kilos. Sensibly Nash didn’t sit on it for too long.

Despite forgetting the key tool of his profession (the whiteboard), Guru Myles did manage to remember the teapot. However due to improper storage in the dugout, the teapot was dislodged post-game and smashed to smithereens. The matter has been referred to the bunker as to who was culpable: Myles (for improper storage) or Thompo (for being clumsy).
Perhaps the teapot was a metaphor for our performance; it arrived intact with Myles but departed crushed like our hopes.

Well, one thing to look forward to is College’s intensive care surgery on said teapot ...watch this space!

Post-match, the team were treated to a well needed staple hockey tea of sausage, beans and chips and the usual quality bonhomie from the hosts.

The conversation on the way back in the defeat-laden gloom was very dull compared to the chirpy chatter on the way there. The discussions included the scintillating subjects of weight watchers followed by Dreaders' Ramzy-esque analysis of the current state of England Hockey South East Martlets Division 4. The journey couldn’t end soon enough and was only punctuated with humour briefly when stuck in a queue at Lewes, Nash realised he would have spent most of the day either travelling past Lewes or to Lewes.

As previously mentioned, if you're looking for a fun hockey team to watch and socialise with, look no further than the BHHC Men’s 9s aka The Glorious Vengeance!

Postscript 1: One of Reedy’s work colleagues watched the game and didn’t notice Reedy. This guy definitely needs to go to Specsavers, as who couldn’t have missed the robust tackle that sent a Saxon flying through the air!
Postscript 2: Saxons have kindly taken photo evidence of Thompo demonstrating how to reverse stick faff."

Other results

BHHC 2s 2 Worthing 2s 7
Oxted 3s 2 BHHC 3s 3
BHHC 4s 1 Worthing 2s 0
Hailsham 1s 6 BHHC 7s 2