Euro Hockey League - Easter 2012

Rotterdam Hockey Club hosted the top 16 European teams in the knock out stages of the Euro Hockey League. England were represented by Beeston, East Grinstead, and Reading.

Beeston were on first thing on Good Friday morning against Club de Campo from Madrid.

Beeston came back from being a goal down to win 2-1 and earn their place in the quarter finals on Sunday

Uhlenhorster HC Hamburg (playing in light blue shirts) beat RC Club de Polo from Barcelona 3-0 and would now play Beeston in the quarter finals

Dutch champions, Amsterdam H & BC - captained by penalty corner legend Taeke Taekama - beat Dinamo Kazan from Russia 6-0

Taeke Taekama, in action against Dinamo Kazan - but he didn't score from this one!

On Friday afternoon, HC Bloemendaal and their vociferous supporters were in town

Captained by the legendary Teun De Nooijer, Bloemendaal overcame Spanish champions Atletic Terrassa but the Spaniards gave the Dutch team a scare. 

Bloemendaal led 4-1 in the fourth quarter ...

... but two goals by Terrassa made for an exciting final few minutes as Bloemendaal clung on for a 4-3 win.

On Saturday, English champions, East Grinstead were first on and were too strong for French team CA Montrouge and won convincingly, 8-0. Ashley Jackson and Mark Gleghorne each scored hattricks.

In the noon game Belgian champions, KHC Dragons, took on and beat Russian runners up Dinamo Elektrostal 2-0. 

Host team, HC Rotterdam were next up against the German runners up, Ulhenhorst Mulheim. Rotterdam raced into a 3-0 lead and then extended it to 4 at the beginning of the second half. However, Mulheim steadily clawed their way back into the game with three goals. They then scored the equaliser three minutes from time. 

Extra time produced no further score and so we went to a penalty shoot out – in this competition, the attacker starts on the 23m line and has 8 seconds to score a goal.

The game was still tied after the first set of 5.

Rotterdam eventually won 8-7 in the sudden death shoot out. Rotterdam would then play East Grinstead in the quarter finals. 

In the last game of the day Reading beat Club an der Alster from Germany 3-1 and earned themselves a quarter final place against KHC Dragons

Reading's Richard Mantell seemed pleased with the win

And so to the Quarter Finals which were played on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday

UHC Hamburg thoroughly outclassed Beeston in the first quarter final match to be played on Easter Sunday. 

They ran out comfortable 7-1 winners and fully deserved their place in the semi-finals at the end of May.

The prime time TV slot featured Amsterdam and Bloemendaal. 

These two teams clearly knew each other well and it was played tactically like a game of chess ...

... with the emphasis on defence. 

Amsterdam opened the scoring through penalty corner ace, Taeke Taekama. They extended their lead before half time.
 

Bloemendaal pulled one back through a very neat penalty corner routine. 

However, Amsterdam quickly restored their two goal advantage. Bloemendaal scored their second from another penalty corner in the final minute ...

... but it was not enough and Amsterdam went through to the semi finals.

On a very wet Easter Monday - so wet that I left my camera at our campsite - KHC Dragons played Reading. These two teams met at this stage in last year’s competition in a game that went to extra time – with Reading eventually winning the penalty shoot out. However, this year the Dragons got their revenge and ran out 3-1 winners but they needed extra time to earn their semi final place against UHC Hamburg. Dragons opened the scoring in the first half but Andy Watts equalised late in the second half to send the game into extra time when the Belgians scored twice.

East Grinstead against hosts HC Rotterdam was the prime time TV slot game and was perhaps the most entertaining game we had seen all weekend.  Rotterdam’s captain, Jeroen Hertzberger, opened the scoring and then he doubled the lead with another fine strike before half time – he now tops the all-time EHL scorers list with a grand total of 26 goals.  Mark Gleghorne pulled one back for East Grinstead from a penalty corner but Rotterdam extinguished any hopes of a comeback with their third goal in the dying minutes.  Rotterdam now face Amsterdam in the semi finals at the end of May.

Video highlights of all matches can be found on the EHL TV website