Men’s Super-Sixes Division 2 Review
There was a close finish in the Men’s Division 2 National tournament at Repton, where four of the five teams finished on seven points. West Herts and Oxted finished first and second, with West Herts winning the title on goals scored after both teams ended with a plus nine goal difference.
West Herts scored 30 goals to Oxted’s 29 after the tournament schedule contrived to set up a West Herts-Oxted finale for both teams, the game ending in a thrilling 8-8 draw, West Herts coming back from 8-2 down by scoring six goals in a ten minute spell.
Ipswich and Trojans had to settle for third and fourth places respectively with goal differences of plus one and minus three, whilst Belper finished fifth after losing all four games.
Unfortunately, Bedford, the Division Two North champions, withdrew before the weekend. Belper and Ipswich had also qualified from the Northern pool after finishing level on ten points.
On Saturday, Trojans started with a 5-4 win over West Herts before Ipswich beat Belper 6-2. Oxted started their campaign with an 11-5 victory over Trojans before West Herts broke their points duck with an 8-4 defeat of Ipswich in a division which gave early indications of being extremely competitive. Oxted were the only team to win both games on Saturday, beating Belper 5-1 in the last match of the day.
On Sunday, Oxted immediately lost their unbeaten record, going down 6-5 to Ipswich. West Herts had boosted their promotion chances with a convincing 10-4 win over Belper in the first match of the day, with Trojans keeping up the pressure on their rivals, also beating Belper 5-3.
Then came the 8-8 thriller between Oxted and West Herts, which left both clubs dependent on the result of the final match of the tournament between Ipswich and Trojans. Both teams could have won the title with a victory, but in another thrilling match, honours ended even a 5-5 with Ipswich racing into a 3-1 lead after 14 minutes.
All was quiet until the 32nd minute when Trojans reduced the deficit to 3-2, only for Ipswich to restore their two goal advantage a minute later. Trojans then equalised with two goals in two minutes before Ipswich led 5-4 in the penultimate minute with the championships and promotion in their sights. Within seconds, Trojans levelled again with neither team able to find the winning goal in the last minute.
