Hockey: Menzieshill make statement with victory over title holders Inverleith

Menzieshill, champions 17 times since 1985, took a giant step to regaining their lost crown with a 2-1 win over Inverleith. Michael Ross gave the Taysiders the lead after eight minutes before Chris Duncan equalised for Inverleith. The winning goal from Chris Wilson arrived three minutes into the second half as he showed good individual skills to create the opening.

Inverleith’s opening fixture with capital rivals Grange was a cracking affair with Stuart Neave’s side finally winning 5-4. Inverleith appeared to be cruising at half-time with goals from Adam MacKenzie, Andrew Malcolm and John Harris giving them a three-goal lead.

Derek Salmond made it 4-0 a minute into the second-half, but two strikes from Gary Cameron brought Grange back into the contest. With six minutes left Malcolm gave Inverleith a 5-2 lead and that sparked a Grange revival with goals from Phil Sully and a third from Cameron reducing Inverleith’s lead to a single goal. In the end, though, it wasn’t enough and Inverleith managed to hold on.

In their second match Grange recovered to beat Greaves Clydesdale 6-3 with goals from Cammie Fraser (2), Hamish Imrie, Cameron (2) and Sully.

In their opening fixture, five goals from Josh Cairns was the foundation of Menzieshill’s 11-goal victory over Clydesdale. Cairns hit four in the first half with two from Ross McPherson putting them six up at the break. After the interval, Cairns scored again, McPherson got his hat-trick and further strikes came from Gavin Byers and Chris Wilson.

Perhaps surprisingly, Glynhill Kelburne share pole position with Menzieshill after victories over VWS Dundee Wanderers and CALA Edinburgh. It was a close affair against Wanderers as the sides were tied at 7-7 with just over a minute to go before Iain Scholefield notched the winner.

Against newly-promoted CALA Edinburgh, Kelburne strolled to ten goals without reply. Teenager Lee Morton scored four, Hall hit another hat-trick and Michael Bremner scored twice. CALA’s opening day in the top flight was a big disappointment as they also went down 9-3 to Western Wildcats with goals from Scott Sutherland and Richard McCorkell (2) providing little solace.

No surprises in the opening games of the women’s league as four goals by Fiona Bruce saw Milne Craig Western defeat Granite City Wanderers 8-2 while champions Dundee Wanderers recorded a 4-0 win over CALA Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, in Auckland on Saturday on the opening day of the Champions Trophy, a cross by Scotland’s Niall Stott with only four minutes left set up the winning goal for Simon Mantell in Great Britain’s 2-1 win over Pakistan. Pakistan took the lead in the first-half through Muhammad Imran, but Mark Pearn threaded the ball past the Pakistan goalkeeper for an equaliser early in the second-half.

Yesterday’s clash with Australia was cancelled due to a flooded pitch and the match was rescheduled for today.