Hockey: Battle for European spot starts to heat up

With Glynhill Kelburne’s eighth successive crown all but won after their double victory on Tayside, the fight for second spot and a place in Europe is on.

Grange are still in the driving seat with a 3-1 win over Edinburgh University. Two penalties from Robb Barr and a goal from Cammie Fraser were too much for the students who scored through Stuart Laing.

Inverleith moved into third place with back to back wins over CALA and Edinburgh University. Inverleith took a 3-2 lead at the interval through Derek Salmond, Chris Duncan and Phil Hall with David Patterson scoring twice for CALA. After the interval, Inverleith dominated with Duncan scoring again and Andrew Malcolm scoring two more for a comfortable 6-2 win.

Yesterday, after a goalless first-half, the Edinburgh students took a shock lead through Graham Moodie. This kick- started Inverleith into action with Phil Hall levelling before scoring again to give them the lead. A solo goal from Andrew Johnson sealed the win.

Western Wildcats fell to fourth after a 1-1 draw with Grove Menzieshill with Gavin Tomlinson scoring for the Taysiders and Douglas Simpson levelling.

Top dogs Kelburne crushed VWS Dundee Wanderers 8-2 with a hat-trick from Alan Forsyth and a double from Lee Morton. Yesterday they thrashed Grove Menzieshill 9-0, with Forsyth scoring a second hat-trick.

Finally, CALA slipped into the relegation play-off position after rivals AMN Hillhead beat Greaves Clydesdale 6-2.

In the women’s league, Grove Menzieshill are still top after a 2-1 win over Giffnock. Milne Craig Western moved to within a point of Grove with two wins over the weekend against CALA (6-0) and Grange (4-1).

Elsewhere, Great Britain women finished second behind the United States in a four nations tournament in Terrassa, having beaten hosts Spain 2-0 in their final game.