Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
ROUND-UP Euro 2018 is the prize for Dundee clubs
THE National Indoor hockey season is now complete.
The two Scottish clubs in Euro 2017, Inverleith men and MJV Dundee Wanderers Ladies, have their turn but how did they fair in the gala day with Euro 2018 as the prize?
Wanderers Ladies had a 4-2 win over Grove Menzieshill, who had twice levelled the score with Katie Robertson and Pauline Stott netting after Wanderers’ Sarah Jamieson and Ami Snelle had put Wanderers in front. Then Julie Bryce and Vikki Bunce scored to give Wanderers the win to retain the title.
In the men’s final, Grove Menzieshill had a 7-3 win over 2016 champions Inverleith.
The ’Hill took the lead in the third minute with a Ross McPherson goal and never gave up the advantage as Gav Thomlinson, Gavin Byers, Chris Wilson, Ben Cromer, Ben Cosgrove and Mike Ross added their goals.
Inverleith’s Stephen Dick had scored for 2-1 but that was the closest they got.
Fabian Wolski and Derek Salmond were the Edinburgh club’s other scorers.
The day had opened with Menzieshill III winning the Regional A/B league play-off for promotion to Division Three.
Dundee Wanderers men faced Menzieshill II for the Division Two title though Wanderers had already sealed promotion as no second team can play in the top division.
Menzieshill’s Jamie Golden scored first and Wanderers’ Fergus Sandison levelled with the start of his hat-trick
Ciaran Crawford restored the Menzieshill advantage and Bobby Ralph equalised.
Oliver James netted Menzieshill’s other goal but Sandison scored twice more to give Wanderers the title to add to promotion after a year out of the top division.
In the play-off for a place in Division Two, Perthshire lost to Inverleith II 6-1.
In the Division One play-off for third place, Kelburne men’s team completed a good season with a 13-5 victory against Grange.
Watsonians men lost out in a battle for Division One status by 6-3 to Edinburgh University.
In a play-off for a Ladies Division One place, Inverleith and Hillhead drew 3-3 then Hillhead had a 1-0 penalty shootout win.
The Scottish Ladies outdoor squad, playing in the World League Two at Valencia from February 4-12, have had 1-0 wins in their first two games.
On Saturday, the opposition was Ghana and, while the Scots played well enough, they found scoring difficult.
They only had an Ami Costello goal from a 13thminute penalty corner to show for dominating the game.
On Sunday, the Scots were far more of an attacking team against Poland.
However, goals again were scarce with only a seventhminute Robyn Collins strike for the win.
Head coach Gordon Shepherd said Poland are not an easy side to beat and the three points will do.
Scotland’s other pool game is against Ukraine at 5pm today and another win is anticipated
Play continues on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday when the Scots have an excellent chance of a top-two finish.
Other scores — Czech Republic 4 Turkey 0, Spain 8 Russia 4, Poland 3 Ukraine 0 and, on Sunday, Russia 7 Turkey 0, Czech Republic 1 Spain 5 and Ghana 2 Ukraine 2.
Local players in the squad are MJV Dundee Wanderers players Rebecca Ward and Charlotte Watson.
In the Midland men’s Indoor Division Two, scores were Perthshire 3 Wanderers III 3 (Perthshire had a 1-0 penalty shootout win), Menzieshill III 1 Menzieshill IV 3 and Harris II 3 Wanderers IV 2.
Perthshire had equalised with two seconds of normal time left and, in the shootout, Jamie Blaikie scored. Their normal time goals were by Jamie Johnstone (2) and Callum Berry. That takes Perthshire to Division One.
The Division Three (Development League) continues on Sunday at DISC from 9.45am.