Ice Hockey: Medway hold their position

TWO First Division sides, Medway Bears and Telford Tigers, obviously took heart from the victory over the pre-eminent Cardiff Devils last week by their divisional colleagues Slough Jets in the Benson and Hedges Cup.

Medway took on Bracknell Bees, a Premier Division side. The Bears' import, Defazio Jarrett, opened the scoring after 12 minutes; Bees replied in the second period, but three Medway goals gave the home team a breathing space.

They needed it. With seven minutes to go, and Bears leading 6-3, a Brian Wilkie goal, followed by another from Brent Selman made it a torrid time for the Bears keeper Russell Jackson as his team held on to the one-goal margin.

To complete Bees' misery, they lost the next day by just one goal - 5-4 to Slough Jets.

Telford's win over a still depleted Whitley Warriors side required them to work hard - Warriors were 3-1 up, but Telford led 8-7 with three minutes to go. A slapshot from Simon Leach looked to have earned a point, but Dave Whistle took 35 seconds to restore Tigers' lead and the 9-8 win.

Maintenance staff at Humberside Hawks are probably still sanding the blistered paint from the away team's dressing-room walls after Rocky Saganiuk, the coach, had finished chatting to Durham Wasps.

It was Wasps' fourth Cup game and they had taken maximum points from the first three. Hawks opened with two goals, Wasps netted six, Hawks replied with two more and the first period ended

6-4 to Wasps.

The turning point came seconds into the second period, when Wasps' John Hutley was thrown out of the game for spearing. Hawks netted three on a power play and went on to add another nine for a total of 11 goals without reply and a 13-6 victory.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 43