Hockey: Grange avoid weekend of woe with win over Inverleith

MATT CONNOR claimed a double yesterday as Grange erased the previous day’s horror show against Western to edge Edinburgh hockey rivals Inverleith 4-3 at Peffermill.

The weekend started badly for Grange, who were thumped 5-2 by Western at home on Saturday. They looked to atone for that performance and raced into a four-goal lead against Inverleith, with Connor netting the first and fourth, with Duncan Riddell and Robert Barr scoring in between.

Inverleith battled back with three goals in 26 second-half minutes from John Harris, Phil Hall and Patrick Christie, but Grange held on.

Elsewhere, there was heartache for Edinburgh University at Peffermill when Martin Babicky netted with less than two minutes remaining to earn Aberdeen, last season’s Division Two champions, a priceless point against their fellow strugglers. Watsonians also had a bad weekend, losing 5-2 at home to Clydesdale.

Meanwhile, Scottish hockey officials will today be called to look into the postponement of Inverleith’s Division One clash with Kelburne at Bellahouston on Saturday.

Edinburgh-based officials Neil McAlpine and David Sweetman called the game off at lunchtime after the teams had warmed up because they could not see the lines, a situation not helped by the low level of the sun.