East Grinstead have put themselves in pole position to win the national indoor league.  After the first of two weekend tournaments, Grinstead are the only team to boast a 100 per cent record.

 

Another good showing at the second weekend in January will ensure they retain the league title they won last year and also qualify for finals night as top seeds.

 

Grinstead won four out of four at Kidderminster this weekend, are three points clear at the top of the table and have a five-point advantage on the third and fourth placed sides, which is significant at this stage.

Manager Matt Jones said: "I'm incredibly happy with four wins out of four because we weren't sure how our new-look squad would perform, particularly against sides who have strengthened their squads.

 

"We had to pull it out of the bag against Bournville, who are now second in the table, in our first game. We didn't look as fluid as we can be and were 5-1 down at half-time but we have a lot of resilience historically and this squad demonstrated we have still got it as they came back to win 6-5.  "That second half performance set the tone for the rest of the weekend."

 

Dave de Prez scored a hat-trick against Bournville with Scott Ashdown (two) and Mani Kochar also netting, then in their second game on Saturday Grinstead beat Reading 6-2 with James Southgate (two), de Prez (two), Mark Justice and Dom Male on target.

 

They began Sunday with a 6-4 defeat of Beeston with goals from de Prez (two), Ashdown (two), Male and Southgate before making it four out of four with an 8-6 win over Robinsons thanks to de Prez (four), Ashdown (three) and Dan Fox.

 

Grinstead are without three of their stars from last year - Ashley Jackson, Glenn Kirkham and Darren Cheesman - this time around and they were also missing Mark Pearn, who is on a family holiday in New Zealand and Australia.

 

England indoor internationals Fox and Nick Page joined a 12-man squad at Kidderminster, all of which were given game time over the weekend.

 

Jones is delighted with his side's progress but knows there is still plenty of work to do.  He said: "We are only 50 per cent of the way as there are still another four games to go. Mathematically we are not guaranteed a place at finals night but we are pretty close to it."

 

The second weekend of matches takes place on January 12/13.

 

Before then Jones and his coach Richard Organ have a busy programme with their roles as managers of the England women's indoor squad. They travel to Glasgow on Friday for three Test matches against Scotland, have a training camp with the women's squad in Bristol the following weekend before flying out to Vienna for the Burlington Cup on January 2.

 

Howard Griggs