National forward Mickel Pierre was among the goals for Canterbury in a 5-3 loss to Holcombe 5-3 in their final match English Hockey League Conference East season. However, Pierre along with fellow T&T internationals, Kwandwane Browne, Matthew Tang Nian and Evan-Pieres Farrell still celebrated the league title win at the end of the 70-minute contest as rivals Old Loughtonians were held to a 2-2 draw by Oxted.
As a result, Canterbury ended its 18-match scehdule with 46 points, one ahead of Old Loughtonians and will now contest a four-team round-robin series to determine the two clubs to be promoted to the Premier Division. The 32-year-old Browne also missed out on winning the most goals award as he ended the season with 21, two shy of Holcombe's David Matthews, who scored twice in yesterday's win. Indian Gymkhana, the team of T&T's Terrance Baptiste was hammered 6-1 by Southgate to finish bottom of the ten-team standings with eight points.
In Conference West, another T&T international Alan Henderson and his Guildford team-mates, slammed Plymouth Marjon 8-2 to finish second on the the standings with 27 points, the same as Farehem who has and inferior goal-difference while champions Team Bath Buccaneers ended with 46 points. The three Conference winners Deeside Rambles (North) Canterbury (East) and Bath Buccaneers (West) now tangle with ninth placed Premier Division finishers, Brookland MU for two places in the Premier Division up for grabs.
The last placed team in the Premier Division, University of Exeter has automatically been relegated. At the other end of the Conference tables, Gymkhana joins the other tenth placed clubs in a playoff to determine who stays up and who is relegated. The top team in this playoff stays up in their Conference and the other two clubs are demoted to their respective regional leagues while the five regional league winners will be promoted.
