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Here is a report very generously supplied by Rozz Mobbs from the UK Hockey Mailing List.
As reported last night, (unless the system crashed and I am again emailless), GB thrashed Holland 8-2 in their Olympic qualifying match last night and consequently moved to the top of their group.
Before the match, GB knew that they could afford no slip-ups if they wanted to keep their Olympic dreams alive but their task was considerably helped by Holland's decision to ice a very young, inexperienced team.
Paddy Scott, now back at Basingstoke following a short spell in Germany, opened the scoring for GB in the second minute, followed by the best goal of the match when Steve Moria brilliantly finished off an excellent move involving Neil Morgan and Mike Bishop. Goal number three was scored by Ian Cooper, marking his 50th appearance in a GB shirt. Holland managed to reduce the deficit by one towards the end of the first period when Chris Eimers, now playing for Kingston Hawks, put one past his team-mate, Bill Morrison, to make it 3-1 to GB at the end of the first.
GB increased their lead to 4-1 in the second with a goal from Rick Strachan only for Holland once more to claw one back through Lester Arts, who played in Britain briefly in the mid-eighties at Streatham. However, GB upped the pace with further goals from Tim Cranston, Richard Little and Kevin Conway making the score 7-2 at the end of the second period.
Only one further goal was scored in the third period when Steve Moria got his second of the night to make the final score 8-2 and everything to play for next week against Switzerland.
Group A
P W D L GF GA Pts
Great Britain 7 5 2 0 28 12 12
Switzerland 6 5 1 0 31 10 11
The Swiss obviously have a game in hand over GB so nothing other than a win at Sheffield Arena next Wednesday night will suffice. This is undoubtedly the most important ice hockey match ever to be staged in Britain.
Ros