A hat-trick from Gareth Andrew helped Beeston beat Canterbury 6-3 in the Men’s Hockey League Premier Division on Sunday – and keep the pressure on leaders Surbiton.

With Surbiton’s match at Reading being postponed on Saturday night due to a frozen pitch, second-placed Beeston took full advantage and closed the gap to just one point, although the leaders do have a game in hand.

Andrew completed his hat-trick in the first half, and with Richard Lawrence also scoring they were 4-3 ahead at half time, with James Oates, Craig Boyne and Michal Nowakowski scoring for bottom of the table Canterbury.

But after the break Beeston dug in and extended their lead thanks to goals from Lucas Garcia Alcade and Robbie Gleeson.

There were also plenty of goals at Brooklands MU as they took on fellow strugglers Sevenoaks and ran out 8-4 winners.

The goal scoring started with Peter Flanagan’s strike on 10 minutes and the floodgates opened with Brooklands 4-1 up at the break thanks to a second from Flanagan and contributions from Richard Slater and Peter Cornell. Tim Warrington scored for Sevenoaks to pull one back.

There were more goals in the second half with a brace from David Flanagan and efforts from Ross Hall and Thomas Lush clinching the win for Brooklands, while Mike Barber, Tom Samuel and Andrew Ross scored for Sevenoaks.

Reading being out of action gave Hampstead & Westminster the chance to push into the play-off place but their 3-2 defeat at Holcombe put paid to that.

Nicholas Bandurak, Daniel Webster and Matthew Rees-Gibbs were the scorers for Holcombe while Chris Cargo and Matt Guise Brown scored consolation goals for Hampstead.

Wimbledon boosted their play-off ambitions with a 4-1 win over East Grinstead. Peter Small, Ben Arnold, Iain Lewers and Ed Horler scored their goals with Ashley Jackson on target for East Grinstead.

Picture supplied by David Kissman.