Hockey: McGuire miss proves ruinous for Teddington

TEDDINGTON'S disappointing European Cup form continued here yesterday when they were beaten 3-2 by Pocztowiec from Poland and will today play Royal Oree from Belgium. Defeat will relegate Beeston, next season's European representatives, to the B Division.

Teddington fell apart after Phil McGuire missed his second penalty stroke in successive days four minutes into the game and were unable to match the speed and physical presence of the Poles.

Piotr Mikula put the Poles into the lead after 12 minutes after the Teddington goalkeeper Jon Ebsworth had elected for a ground shot. Four minutes later Marcin Michniak finished off a 50-yard run to beat Ebsworth.

With Jason Laslett pulling a goal back three minutes before the interval at a penalty corner, the English side were still in the hunt. Eight minutes into the second half Maciej Matuszynski gave the Poles a two-goal margin.

Nick Conway raised Teddington's hopes again, scoring their second goal but they failed to take advantage of the Poles being reduced to 10 men following a temporary suspension.

Teddington: J Ebsworth; B Garrard, S Nicklin, S Dawkins, A Colclough; P Kermode, J Laslett, J Wallis, P McGuire (capt); J Hauck, N Conway. Substitutes used: D Haydon, P Way, A Billson.

Pocztowiec: K Kordylewski; P Bogajewski; T Cichy, Z Juszczak, K Michalak (capt); M Matuszynski, P Mikula, J Adrian; K Wybieralski, R Grotowski, M Michniak. Substitutes used: J Bogajewski, J Zasadzinski.

Umpires: R Kiselev (Rus) and E-J van Putten (Neth).