Inverleith and Grove Menzieshill to meet in men’s indoor final

Indoor m Blue

Defending men’s indoor hockey champions Inverleith, and 19-times title winners Grove Menzieshill, will contest the final of this season`s men’s indoor first division championship after they saw off the challenge of Grange and Bromac Kelburne respectively in the semi-finals.

Inverleith maintained their quest for their fifth championship title by defeating Grange 7-4 in the all-Edinburgh clash.

The champions were certainly given an early reminder that Grange were to be no push-overs as the underdogs went into an early two goal lead through Luke Cranney and Callum Milne.

Inverleith retaliated strongly, Patrick Christie and Derek Salmond had the scores level at 2-2 midway through the first half. By the interval further goals from Adam McKenzie and Stephen Dick at a penalty corner put Inverleith 4-2 ahead

But this ding-dong affair was far from finished, Grange drew level with goals from Duncan Riddell and John McCluskey.

Salmond restored Inverleith`s lead at 5-4, a tiring Grange replaced their goalkeeper with an additional outfield player to try to retrieve the tie, but only allowed Christie to grab two late goals for his own hat-trick.

Grove Menzieshill were the early pacesetters with three goals in the opening ten minutes through Chris Wilson, Ross McPherson and Gavin Tomlinson. The lead failed to reach the interval as Michael Bremner, Kiwi Nick Finlayson and Johnny Christie levelled the match for the Paisley side.

The tie was still up for grabs with four minutes left, Aiden McQuade from the spot and Cameron Golden put the Dundonians 5-3 up, but again Kelburne refused to surrender with further strikes by Finlayson and Christie.

The Taysiders` greater experience and a yellow card for Kelburne kicking back Josh Cairns told in the end, McPherson made it 6-5 from a penalty corner and Ben Cromar added another at the death to earn Grove Menzieshill a place in the final.

Indoor m Hillhead Frail

Perhaps Hillhead failed to make up enough ground on Grange to reach the semi-final stages, but they certainly pulled out all the stops to hold Kelburne to an 8-8 draw in a cracking, high-scoring affair.

A shock seemed on the cards when the Glasgow side raced into a 4-1 interval lead, Callum Duke opened from the spot and that was followed by goals from David Gay, Ewan Campbell and Andrew Black, while Johnny Christie got Kelburne`s only counter.

A shock seemed even more likely as Hillhead advanced their lead to 6-1 two minutes into the second half through Black and Campbell again.

The adverse situation finally donned on the Paisley side and the goals flooded in; Christie added another two to make the inevitable hat-trick; Michael Bremner scored three while Nick Finlayson also made a contribution to bring the tally to 7-6. Duke levelled at 7-7, Kelburne`s Lee Morton made it 8-7, and in the closing minutes Jackson Corry Duff gave Hillhead a well-earned share of the points.

In the other final Pool A match there was another upset in the offing as Grange was being held to a 4-4 draw by bottom side Uddingston, only for John McCluskey to save the Edinburgh side with the winner inside the final minute.

Again it was the underdog that seemed to be in control with a 4-1 lead two minutes into the second half, Barry Platt scored twice, but back came Grange to level at 4-4 through a double from McCluskey and Callum Milne before the belated winner.

No such excitement and drama from the final games in Pool B, Inverleith started off with an 11-1 victory over Clydesdale. There were hat-tricks for Derek Salmond and Patrick Christie with Fabian Wolski picking up a double.

Ironically Grove Menzieshill beat Western Wildcats by the same margin, there was a hat-trick for Ben Cromar and doubles for both Cameron Golden and Chris Wilson.

Clydesdale recovered their composure sufficiently to claim fifth spot in the championship with an 8-6 win over Hillhead. After taking a three goal lead in the opening eight minutes, there were two for Struan Walker and a penalty corner conversion by Andrew Allan, Clydesdale never lost the initiative throughout the contest.

There was a hat-trick for Hillhead`s Callum Duke but Clydesdale held their nerve to record their third victory of the competition.

Uddingston surrendered their top flight status after going down 6-2 to the Wildcats. The latter did the damage in the first half with a four goal lead without reply, veteran Scott McCartney scored twice with Andrew and Joe McConnell picking up the others.

The second half was a more even affair, Tom Hyndman and Laurie McKelvie opened Uddingston`s account but McCartney for his own hat-trick and Andrew McConnell added two more for the Auchenhowie side.

Photos by Mark Pugh

Indoor m uddingston Grange

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