Cake to cook up fresh approach

Hockey

BILL COLWILL

Cambridge will be trying this afternoon to terminate Oxford's five-year run of victories since the University match moved from Lord's to the Reading club ground.

Although both sides had wins at the weekend and Oxford may be lording it in the National League, this could be Cambridge's year and, for their right defender, Russell Cake, next term's cricket captain, the end of an unenviable record of having played in six University matches, three in both sports, without being on a winning side.

Much will depend on how quickly Mike Meredith, the former Oxford Blue, can settle into the Cambridge midfield and whether the three Freshers up front for Cambridge, including Giles Osborne, who scored three times in the 6-4 win over Peterborough Town on Saturday, can break down an experienced Oxford defence.

Indeed, Oxford have strength in all departments, from the goalkeeper David Jefferson, who won a silver medal with Ireland in last summer's European Youth Olympics in Bath, to the back four, including the captain, Toby Griffiths and last year's captain, Peter Bell, on to the German Under- 21 international, Henning Tewes, at centre midfield and the New Zealander, Ken Robinson, at centre forward.

OXFORD: D Jefferson (Brasenose); M Barr* (New), T Griffiths* (Keble, capt), P Bell* ( Lincoln), W Kendall* (Keble); J Pratt* (University), H Tewes* (Keble), B Cope (Brasenose); R Macdowel* (St Benet's), K Robinson (Keble), S Morley* (Green). Substitutes: S Knight (St Catherine's), A Walther* (Keble), S Innes (New), B Raumann (St Catherine's), N Berry (Exeter).

CAMBRIDGE: P Piotrowicz* (Fitzwilliam); C Carter* (Girton, capt); R Cake* (St John's), J Harding* (Robinson), D Churton* (St Catharine's); I Bateman (Emmanuel), M Meredith* (Clare), T McCarthy* (St John's); C Mannall (Homerton), G Osborne (Homerton), G Playfair (Robinson). Substitutes: F Schulten* (Queens'), A Sainsbury* (Pembroke), T Parr (Sidney Sussex), D Clark (Queens') C Durrant (Sidney Sussex). * denotes Blue