It’s been some few weeks for Welsh club hockey and Cardiff & Met, who produced a brilliant second-half performance to win the final of the men’s EuroHockey Club Trophy I in Vienna.
The Welsh side, who won promotion to next season’s Men’s Premier Division recently, beat OKS SHVSM Vinnitsa to make it back-to-back European titles for the club thanks in part to a Jack Pritchard double.
Last season, they won the Trophy II in Switzerland and they backed it up with another unbeaten run.
They made it through the group stage with an impressive 8-1 win over Ukraine’s second seed OSHVM-Phoenix and then snagged a crucial draw with a last minute Ioan Wall goal against hosts Post SV.
It left them needing a win over Scotland’s Grange in their last group game and they got it with two second half goals from Jack Pritchard.
The final saw a scoreless first half before it went goal crazy. Pritchard opened the scoring from a corner before Ieuan Davies added a stroke.
Oleksandr Diachenko got one back with six minutes to go but a second Pritchard effort followed quickly by another Davies stroke made the game safe ahead of an Oleksii Popov consolation.
Scotland’s Grange picked up the bronze medal and some valuable EHL ranking points after a 5-4 win over Swiss champions Grasshopper Club Zurich on the final day in Vienna.
Hampstead & Westminster finished third at the women’s EuroHockey Club Trophy at Wettingen, Switzerland.
Grace Balsdon fired home a penalty stroke to give H&W bronze after a 1-0 win over Sumchanka.
They had earlier beaten Iris Hockey Lambersart, of France, 12-0 in their final group game, while it was defeat to Mannheimer which put paid to the final aspirations. Belgium outfit KHC Dragons beat the Germans in the final 1-0.
At the Euro Hockey League women, Dutch club SCHC finished their first EHL campaign in fifth as they came back from a goal down to beat Surbiton after a Yibbi Jansen double.
The recent English Premier Division runners-up played for the minor places after coming close to reaching the final four in Amsterdam.
Düsseldorfer scored a late equaliser and then won a shoot-out 3-1 over Brett Garrard’s side.
