The second half of the Men's Hockey League season starts on Sunday February 6 with Brighton & Hove resuming their campaign against Division One South leaders Reading at Blatchington Mill (1pm).

After only two wins in the first half of the season Brighton are facing a free-scoring Reading side who have a six-point lead at the top. Their form at Blatchington over the next two months will be key to their hopes of climbing away from danger as six of their remaining nine fixtures are at home.

Having lost 7-1 at Reading on the opening day of the season Brighton will be hoping that the work over the winter break on their fitness and positional discipline will help at least to close the gap. However, they will be without key defender Will Heywood, who has a broken thumb, and midfielder Steve Perry, who is isolating with Covid, but have brought Finn Tookey, a Sussex University student with national league experience, into the squad.

Brighton tuned up for the league resumption by playing twice over the weekend. They were drawn into a feisty encounter with Fareham on Saturday night after dominating the early stages and ended up needing a Mike Burney penalty corner to earn a 2-2 draw. On Sunday they faced Oxted and while two late goals saw them go down 4-1 coach Jon Williams saw encouraging signs as they matched themselves against the pace of their premier division opponents.

Oxted 2s 5
BHHC 2s 1

Andrew Bromley reports: “M2 made the trip north to well known 1st XI rivals Oxted for what we expected to be a tough and fast match. It was exactly that!

When we faced Oxted at home in the first half of the season, the scoreline was slightly closer and that should have been the case this time around (still in favour of Oxted though!).

Oxted's passing and 'hunting' of our players was the best we've faced this year. Their transfers were incredibly fast and with purpose and when we did have control of the ball, they committed (legally) to their tackles to a standard that we've not come up against this year. Credit where credit is due!

We still managed to string several decent phases of play together, with Dan Trigwell looking incredibly effective alongside midfield colleagues Mike Williams, Ed Zeidler and Sam Headey. At the back, the BHHC 'Youth' of Max Sanchez and Oscar Davies linked with Tim Upchurch, Guilaume Green and Matt Upchurch to keep Oxted at bay. The forwards of Chris Page, Owen Maskell, Rupert Ashdown and Antonio Ferreira put in the hard yards!

Sadly there are some similar themes both week to week and more generally across the season; Oxted scored the majority of their goals from penalty corners (see match report vs Sunbury) and we missed a penalty stroke (Tim Upchurch this time hitting the post). Our 3rd missed penalty stroke of the season.

Frustratingly Dan Trigwell had a goal disallowed which would make the scoreline perhaps a slightly truer reflection of Saturdays events.

Oxted 3s away this weekend giving us the Groundhog Day vibe. However, they are an entirely different outfit to Ox 2s!

BHHC 3s 1
Southwick 1s 2

Paul Harvey reports: “A tough game against a good side and we just fell short but played well. The difference was short corners - both teams had three or four and they scored two of them and we didn’t.

We only had 11 and effectively nine and a half for the last 15 when my calf and Luke’s legs largely gave up. So it was a really good effort to stay in it. Kudos to Pixie for some great saves, Luke Williams for some great passing, Wolfie looking good on the ball, Riordan for an unexpected bit of 3D hockey and Curtis for the goal.

But a good team effort all round. Short corner practice, more stretching and a few more players next week please.”

BHHC 5s 3
Worthing 4s 2

Ramzy Omran reports: “The 5s had a full squad to face an experienced side that were second in the league.

The first half was disjointed with errors from both sides. Worthing controlled the tempo and scored first. The 5s had chances, including penalty corners, but the ball evaded the backboard. Worthing scored an unfortunate second.

The second half was a different...half. The 5s adjusted things and created several chances. Jacob Young and Alex de Souza worked the ball well in the centre, and Michael Kyle and Tyler EC got forward. Alex Sanchez scored a deflection from a Tyler cross, and added a second from a Lucas cross.

De Souza scored the third to gain the lead. The 5s fitness started to show as Worthing slowed with their attacks. The game was seen out and the 5s took three points with great pride.

MoM: Alex Sanchez and Alex de Souza bringing the goals
DoD: Alex de Souza for a duff aerial (Michael Kyle duffed one too).”

BHHC 6s 3
East Grinstead 4s 8

Tom Wolfenden reports: “We were simply outclassed. Actually, for the first 10 minutes, pulverised might be a better description as EG’s high press resulted in a series of short corners, which they converted to score five goals in machine gun succession.

We reorganised to a flat back six, slowly overcame the shell shock and fought back to actually win the final 50 minutes 3-2 but this was a tough day at the office against the best side we have faced this season.

Thanks to Alan and Gary for whistling.”

Eastbourne 4s 0
BHHC 7s 1

Richard Barnes reports: “Heroic victory this one. With a dozen players missing and difficulty to get full cover for the late slot away at Eastbourne we set off for the A27 with just 10 players.

A reshaped formation of 4-4-1, with debutant 16-year-old Ruairi Gifford given the freedom to roam up front. Eastbourne started brightly pressing hard for the first 15 minutes but for all the energy they created little.

It was a large, fast and bouncy pitch so plenty of ground to cover and we made good use of the wide areas, Andy Wright combining well with Stephen Shorrocks down the right.

Kevin Mould and Ruairi were covering a lot of ground and both seeing plenty of the ball helping us win a number of short corners. Andy Cunningham was also putting in a shift, with one good hand, he was a strong presence on the left, carrying the ball away from danger and linking up with well with Ruairi.

Goalless at half-time, we felt triumphant. We had put up with a lot of noise from both umpires but at this stage we still had a full 10 players and no one carded.

Second half followed a similar pattern, Eastbourne persisting with an ineffective aerial bombardment which Cam, Gary and John were happily dealing with.
Not too much for goalie Dave to do, though he did make the occasional important intervention.

Then disaster as Kevin’s hamstring went ping and we had to ask him to stand in front of their goalie and hop around as best he could.

A big moment when Dave made a save on the edge of the D, but after delay of a few seconds this was finally adjudged to have been outside the D. However, the Eastbourne umpire for some reason awarded nothing more than a hit to the attackers (didn’t like to query why not a short corner? …and card the goalie…ho hum). So we survived.

Fifteen minutes to go a classic counter attack saw Kevin on one good leg on the P spot slotting home.

So the last ten minutes, we kept it simple, Dickie and Andy Wright holding the ball and drawing the foul, we took our time. You could see the belief draining from the Eastbourne players as we showed a reluctance to give them the ball back.

Then with three minutes to go Andy Cunningham being outpaced obstructed the attacker and saw green. But with the players we still had left on the pitch we held our nerve and bagged the three points.

A big result against the odds and following on from the hard fought draw with EG the week before, a great run from the M7s who move up to third, looking forward to the next one - a big match up with St Francis.”

BHHC 8s 9
Worthing 6s 0

Matt Richardson reports: “A morning home tie for the high-flying Pebbles this week against a Worthing side sitting close to the bottom of the table.

With only 12 in their experienced squad this was going to be a long day for the opposition and after last week’s relatively close encounter it was clear from the off that the Pebbles had their foot firmly on the gas with all-out attack and constant pressure towards the Worthing goal.

Within five minutes of the start Theo Isachsen, captain today, converted in open play, 1-0 Pebbles. Patrick Ford and Max Turnbull worked well in midfield opening up numerous opportunities down the right flank and nine minutes in it was 2-0 after a neat exchange between Rudy Maxwell and Dan Hore, who crossed to Aaron Patel to convert at the back post.

Two became three with Patrick F starting and finishing a lovely move and whilst Worthing had one brief foray into Pebbles territory, Elliott Ashdown was little more than a spectator for what was to be the entire game.

24 minutes in, Louis Patel drove towards the byline cutting in for a neat finish, 4-0, followed shortly after by Miles Richardson slotting in the fifth after yet more impressive work down the right flank, this time by Peter Rourke.

Not long after, a sixth goal came with a superb exchange between Aaron P and Louis P with Aaron finishing once again - the Worthing back line looked exhausted and deflated.

Brighton’s rolling subs were being used effectively and whilst Worthing didn’t have that luxury, their job was made even harder with a ball accidentally deflected to a head in the D. After a period of treatment with players from both teams attending to the Worthing defender to stem a cut to the nose, the half ended. Thankfully, nothing too serious it appeared, but there will be some impressive bruising for sure.

Eventually the second half got underway although the gap in play seemed to stem the flow of goals for the Pebbles with the fizz of the first half somewhat slowing and momentum temporarily dwindling.

On the odd occasion that Worthing ventured into Brighton territory a solid rotating back line of Ivor Davies, Toby Leonard, Peter Rourke, Harry Adams and Hugo Mason dealt with things calmly and with authority, as has become customary, using the transfer effectively to recycle the Brighton attacks.

Whilst the sun made occasional breakthroughs it was another 15 minutes before Brighton did, Patrick F scoring a superb flick from the centre of the D high into the net, 7-0.

A mazy solo run from Carlo Missirian found Theo I on 22 minutes who converted, 8-0 and to complete the rout, Carlo himself struck Brighton’s ninth sweetly from the top of the D late in the game.

Whilst numerous other chances came and went for the Pebbles today, we shouldn’t take anything away from this young team who are clearly enjoying their hockey alongside some of the older and more experienced players.

Scoreline aside, there were plenty of moments of slick passing with all the team willing to find and make space for each other and let the ball do the work. This was, in parts, very easy on the eye from a team that are still on course for top honours this season.”

East Grinstead 5s 2
BHHC 9s 2

Matt Sale reports: “The 9s travelled to EG for an early start and came away with a very creditable draw. Duke Quinton and Warren Plaskett both found the net in the second half for the 9s cancelling out EG goals.

Man of the match was goalkeeper Simon Smith, who kept numerous EG drag flicks at bay. Many thanks to Pete Smales and Subra Nachiappan for sharing umpiring duties which very sportingly meant EG could play with a full team.

Other results
South Saxons 2s 1 BHHC 4s 0