Hockey: Beeston routed by Reading

IT MIGHT only be early December but the line-up for the men's Premier League play-offs already look pretty certain after yesterday's games.

League leaders Reading beat bottom-placed Beeston 10-3, Canterbury won the second-versus-third contest 2-0 against Guildford, while Cannock edged into third with a 40th-minute Ben Sharpe goal against Bournville Birmingham University. Guildford, now in fourth place, are nine points ahead of a chasing pack led by newly promoted Surbiton, who drew 2-2 with Southgate.

In spite of a first-minute goal from Jason Lee, Division One leaders Loughborough Students were held to a 3-3 draw by Chelmsford. Division Two leaders Hampstead and Westminster kept their 100 per cent record with a 3-2 win in which Eastcote's Danny Geach was sent off for barging into the umpire. The South African Murray Anderson, who flew in on Saturday for his first game of the season, scored three times as second-placed St Albans beat Firebrands 4-2.