SLOUGH men, champions of the Middx, Berks, Bucks & Oxon Regional Two, ended their season with a 9-0 thumping at Banbury.

But there was a good reason for it, as skipper Lennart Bobzien explained: “This game was re-arranged from February and the normal season was over two weeks ago.

“Due to holidays and work, we had a lot of players unavailable and we turned up with just 11 players.

“Only five were from the firsts, the others were youngsters and some from our third team. So it was to be expected that the game would not be great for us.”

He continued: “Fortunately, we had won the league already and this game meant nothing. Banbury had no chance of getting promoted or being relegated.”

The league website gives the result as 8-0, but Bobzien believed it was 9-0 with five goals coming in the first half.

“They were the better side on the day and were a bit too good for us,” added the skipper.

“But we can forget about this result, as we have had a great season, winning the league and getting promotion.”

Slough finished the season with 55 points, one more than runners-up Amersham & Chalfont. The top two were well clear of the third-placed club, Sonning, on 45 points.

Bobbie Bansal was second in the Regional 2 scorers list with 30 goals, 13 fewer than Amersham’s Kevin Haigh.

It wasn’t the best of weekends for Slough, as on Sunday their 2nd team lost 3-1 to London Royals in their London League Division 6 Cup final played at Reading HC.

The Upton Court Park men had finished third in the league on 36 points, 21 behind champions London Royals, who won 19 of their 20 league games in only their second season in existence.