Promotion-chasing Canterbury proved too strong for Brighton & Hove for the second time this season as they ran out 5-1 winners in the Men's Hockey League on Sunday.

The Kent side struck from two early penalty corners and a third goal shortly after half time put them in firm command. But after player-coach Joe Naughalty had replied from a corner - scoring for the fifth successive match - Brighton were frustrated to be brought back by an umpire's whistle as Alex Cooke was stick-tackled when attacking an empty circle.

"That could have made it interesting," said Brighton manager Jon Williams, whose side were caught twice more as they chased the game in the last quarter. Goalkeeper Chris Borsoi was again outstanding for Brighton while Joe Sterlini marshalled the defence well and James Rayward continued to show his increasing confidence on the ball.

"Our marking was not as tight as it has been in the past few games and that let us down against a very good side," said Jon. The result leaves Brighton three points adrift of safety in the second relegation place in Division One South while Canterbury move level on points with Reading at the top of the table.

Reading's promotion push suffered a third straight loss as Scott Rawlings's goal propelled Havant to a stunning first win of the season against the leaders. Bath Buccaneers are now firmly in contention too, two points behind after their 3-1 win against Oxford Hawks.

Old Cranleighan drew 2-2 with Teddington, who Brighton entertain on Sunday at Blatchington Mill (1pm), while Southgate eased their relegation fears with a 2-1 triumph over Sevenoaks.

East Grinstead 2s 7
BHHC 2s 0

Andrew Bromley reports: "Arriving at Saint Hill in the glorious sunshine felt like a good omen but there was trouble in store. Due to some internal miscommunication, we ended up only being able to field 12 players and not all had a set of working hamstrings! A revised set of tactics and press were agreed and communicated. The pre-match drama did not stop there though!

Just prior to warming up we found out that one of the EG players had returned a positive Covid test but was still expecting to play. We made our stance clear and felt sorry for the young lad who'd travelled to play a match and was (eventually) returned home.

The game started in the worst possible way - EG moved the ball around swiftly and after just one minute, scored a fluke goal from what must have been a millimetre off the baseline. Luckily we managed to get a foothold in the game for the next 10 or so minutes and worked well both with and without the ball. EG then scored two PCs - from memory both flicked hard and high at the right post (despite several prior clearances from our right post-man!).

The second half was much of the same - EG not able to manufacture lots of open play opportunities but winning corners. Sadly law of averages says that with a decent flicker, 15 or so PCs will yield you lots of goals! EG also won two penalty strokes, converted with power either side of the excellent Matt Upchurch.

All in all we reduced a top team in the league (with a superb flicker) to one open play goal and a surprisingly low PC conversion rate of less than 30%.

This fixture was the end of the toughest possible run, as we've played all of the top five teams in a row. Given the shifts put in by numerous players, the result does not reflect the application and learning of the players. Particularly Max Sanchez, James Harvey and Will Buttress, who put in near 70 minute shifts at centre forward, half back and inside half respectively.

What was perhaps the most pleasing thing was that despite Brighton being the team with their backs to the wall, it was the EG squad (and coach in particular) that were more interested in spoiling the game. In fact, the EG coach seemed to spend 90% of his time criticising our players, instead of 'coaching' his own. Perhaps reinforcing the belief that BHHC are taking the mantle as the premier club in Sussex.

MoM went to Will Buttress, with Gui picking up a well deserved (comical) DoD for a rugby tackle style 'cuddle tackle' in the 69th minute (again having played the entire game!)"

BHHC 3s 0
Lewes 2s 2

Paul Harvey reports: "Against a strong Lewes side we were light on numbers and eventually went down to an annoying short corner and a breakaway. But there was some good fight in between.

Pixie kept us in it with some great saves, Luke played the pass of the match from our left hand corner, and Travis had some great breaks that nearly got put away. If we’d scored a short corner with 25 to go it might have been different. More composure in their 25 married with the good spirit we showed and we’ll start winning this sort of tight one."

BHHC 5s 5
Hailsham 2s 2

Ramzy Omran reports: "Squad numbers were thin but the 5s managed a good first half with decisive team passing. Goals came from Jamie Hendrick, Michael Kyle and Tyler Easterbrook-Cotton, Hailsham scored a goal.

In the second half one player had to leave (Laurence Budd, not only left the match but also Brighton, thanks for all your play in your time at the club) as another arrived (travel delays). James Hendrick scored another and Anthony Jukes rifled the ball into the net for a fifth. Hailsham had stopped working as a team but scored a second from a penalty corner. Chances came to Jacob Young, Michael Kyle and Lucas Owers, who had a shot on goal disallowed.

The 5s able youth section were key to playing a strong team game that enabled three points to be taken with great pride.

MoM - Luca Owers
DoD - Lucas/Jacob."

BHHC 7s 0
BHHC 8s 2

Matt Richardson and Richard Barnes report: "After last week’s drenching both the 7s and the Pebbles returned to a sunny Blatchington Mill pitch for a match-up against each other with only two places separating them in the table.

With news filtering through of a St Francis defeat earlier in the day the game had added impetus for the 8s looking to close the five-point gap above them.

With a 3pm pushback the Pebbles started sluggishly whilst the 7s, ably assisted by three late recruits returning early from Littlehampton in Simon Corrie, Roo Page and Alan Teal, were the first to press firmly and immediately on the front foot.

The extra cover was certainly needed especially when Simon Finn’s hamstring went ping five minutes in. Some early short corners for Pebbles came to nothing with the 7s keeper, Sean, making a few good saves including a penalty flick on 13 minutes, so the score remained goalless.

The half was dragging a little with the signature flowing moves from the Pebbles lacking despite some well-worked transfers across the back between Peter Rourke, Ivor Davies, Toby Leonard and George Hodgson (starting as right back) adding some nice play from deep on occasions.

Defensively the 7s fought bravely and were hard to break through with lots of determined tackling, Hamish and Gary holding the fort in the middle. The Patel family midfield battle was also great to see with Atul and Aaron on opposite sides; this game would have the added spice of post-game bragging rights in one household that night!

The 7s weren’t here to make it easy for the Pebbles, mounting a number of attacks and short corners of their own with guest keeper Pete Stevens, deputising for the 8s, being kept busy on a number of occasions.

Late in the half a Pebbles mistake led to a close miss from the 7s only for the Pebbles to break from the middle of the park themselves through Miles Richardson and take the lead through Louis Patel just on the half time whistle. A palpable sigh of relief from the Pebbles support ensued - this wasn’t pretty or simple.

The second half got underway in the same vein as the first. Some sparks in places but the Pebbles seemed to lack their usual shape in the midfield and whilst attacks started to build and with relentless running, there was little in the way of end result from the a front three who were outnumbered by a resolute and well organised 7s defence.

Max Turnbull fought hard for every ball in midfield, feeding play down the left flank this time, although too many times there was limited presence in the D providing a clinical finish.

Carlo Missirian’s calls of ‘together’ were perhaps a sign on a day which lacked some of the togetherness we’ve been so used to seeing from this young Pebbles team in past weeks. At 1-0 it was still anybody’s game and another superb save from the 7s keeper from a full blooded strike from Carlo close-in which he somehow pushed over the bar, showed they weren’t ready to throw in the towel.

Driving forward the 7s were stopped on more than one occasion by Ant Faulkus, whose calm and skilful presence at the back shored-up any sign of an outlet from the 7s, who continued to push hard for the equaliser.

19 minutes into the half however the 8s doubled their lead with Rudy Maxwell skilfully bringing down a looping ball and Theo Isachsen dispatching from close range - 2-0.

The 7s weren’t giving up and continued to press the Pebbles to the very end, the ‘Littlehampton 3’ playing brilliantly and making the 8s really work hard to grind out a well deserved win. Whilst enormously enjoyable from a player's perspective with two competitive teams going full throttle in places, this wouldn’t rate as a classic, but,winning ugly is still winning (as they say).

The 7s can hold their heads high – a hard fought game and still sitting in fourth, ready for an away tie v Crawley 4s next week The Pebbles on the other hand will need to regroup ahead of next week's home game v East Grinstead and focus on the occasions they have been almost unplayable in some matches this season.

After a long unbeaten run, February hasn’t been a kind month for the 8s with two wins and two losses and, whilst all are no doubt pleased to see the back of it, it’s time now to get this juggernaut back on track... together."

BHHC 9s 1
Worthing 6s 0

Simon Smith reports:

Letters to the Editor - Nature
Volume 345/sub 5/section 2

"In nature many animals adopt sophisticated behaviours or adaptations to ensure their survival. Some use visual appearance to deceive, others rely on sound and smell, whether predator or prey.

The men's 9s is a relatively unsophisticated organism within the animal kingdom and displays all the characteristics of the genus hockeyius teamus minorus leagueus. Like other similar species, when correctly and appropriately stimulated, the 9s can display complex co-ordinated characteristics and appear to behave as a single entity. However this is rare.

Nevertheless, your correspondent wishes to draw Nature's attention to the 9s remarkable collective and individual adaptation.

When placed in the vicinity of another team, the men's 9s will adapt to exactly mirror the characteristics and behaviours of their opponents*. This week the men's 9s took on the Worthing 6s (a team who by their own admission are usually six down at half time) and it was observed that the 9s immediately adapted to their surroundings, becoming lacklustre, chaotic, like a caffeinated spider's web of poor passing, running around and shouting. As an entity the entire team was thus observed to be adaptable.

But perhaps more curious still was the individual player's adoption of characteristics and behaviours from the animal kingdom deploying camouflage, masquerade, sound and stillness.

Myles adopted the characteristics of the Pyralid Moth, using sound, specifically the sound “He’s got nothing”, to rile an attacker into making errors. More curiously, Wappy adopted the masquerade of the Northern Grey Shrike, a bird which emulates the call of weaker species in order to lure them close, with his cries of ‘Oh the pain, oh the pain’.

But this week’s animal adaptation emulation award goes to Dreadful for his impersonation of the Western Hognose Snake, which pretends to be dead before suddenly coming to life and striking his prey.

As his half-baked shot took a deflection off the defence and trickled past their (admirable) goalie to claim the 9s single winning goal, Worthing must surely have felt deceived by his, and the rest of the team's cunning display of rank adaptability. Ah well, a win's a win and nature's cruel indeed.

*Scientific evidence would suggest this phenomena could also be observed at EG a couple of weeks back, where in the presence of a more advanced opponent the 9s looked almost half competent."