Britain Stop Irish Eyes From Smiling
11th July 2007Great Britain returned to winning ways with a 20-5 triumph over Ireland on Day Three of the LEN European Nations Trophy at Manchester Aquatics Centre.
The host nation recorded their second victory of the competition, following Sunday's 20-9 win over Israel and Monday's loss to France.
Lancaster's Tom Curwen scored seven to take his tally for the competition to 17 - moving second in the tournament's goalscoring charts behind France captain Frederic Audon, who has 22 - while captain Craig Figes, of Bristol Central, and Cheltenham's Mark Banwell, who both grabbed four, also excelled for the host nation.
Manchester goalkeeper Ed Scott was close to impenetrable for much of the match, repelling any Irish threat on his goal.
Britain started with a drop defence, employed to nullify the threat of Jonathan Kirk, Ireland's centre forward. The practise was very effective, forcing Ireland to explore other options and Kirk to move out of his favoured position.
Britain had more success at centre forward and Rotherham's Adam Scholefield turned Jonathan Donnelly to win a penalty. Curwen opened the scoring from five metres.
Scholefield troubled Ireland once more and had Alan Fogarty excluded. The former Britain Under-21 captain then exchanged passes with skipper Craig Figes to double the host nation's lead. Figes grabbed a third on the fast break to leave Ireland reeling.
Cheltenham centre-forward Mark Banwell was equally as effective as Scholefield, and Curwen scored his second from the left wing when Stephen Murphy was excluded. Banwell added a fifth and Andrew Squires scored a sixth. Banwell claimed his second with 1.8 seconds left in the quarter.
Scott saved well from Ireland's Darren McHugh and gathered the ball before releasing Curwen on the fast break and he drove towards goal before lobbing Christopher Hodgkinson to complete his hat-trick. Figes found Scholefield who took his second of the game after turning the centre defender. Patrick Lowery then opened the Irish account.
Curwen took Britain into double figures with 1:13 remaining in the half after Thornton was excluded. Scott denied Ciaran Walshe and Britain used their first time out with 5.3 seconds left when Eoin Nolan was found guilty of a personal foul. It was enough time for Britain to move the ball into space for left-hander Alex Parsonage to score from the right wing.
Figes scored his second 34 seconds into the second half from the left wing. Michael Kelleher cancelled out Figes' strike, but the Bristol Central player hit back 22 seconds later to get his third.
Rob Parker scored after Kelleher was excluded for fouling Carpenter. Parker set up Cheltenham team-mate Banwell who earned a penalty at the expense of Graham Fogarty, which Curwen again converted.
Donnelly scored Ireland's third on a fast break to open the fourth-period scoring and McHugh scored a shot from six metres. But Kelleher received his third personal foul to rule him out of the remainder of the game and Curwen scored his sixth from the resulting 6-on-5. Banwell completed his hat-trick, before Curwen scored again. Graham Fogarty scored after a pass the length of the pool from Hodgkinson, but then Banwell got his fourth.
Figes added his fourth and Britain's 20th with 50 seconds left to complete the scoring.
Result: 20-5 (7-0; 4-1; 4-1; 5-3)
Great Britain: 1 Ed Scott, 2 Sean Ryder, 3 Mark Banwell (4 goals), 4 Scott Carpenter, 5 Craig Figes (Capt, 4), 6 Andrew Squires (1), 7 Alex Parsonage (1), 8 Tom Curwen (7), 9 Rob Parker (1), 10 Adam Scholefield (2), 11 Chris Gilbertson, 12 Matthew Thresher, 13 Matthew Birch
Ireland: 1 Christopher Hodgkinson (Capt), 2 Alan Fogarty, 3 Eoin Nolan, 4 Kevin Thornton, 5 Graham Fogarty (1 goal), 6 Patrick Lowery (1), 7 Darren McHugh (1), 8 Jonathan Donnelly (1), 9 Ciaran Walshe, 10 Jonathan Kirk, 11 Michael Kelleher (1), 12 Stephen Murphy, 13 Eoin Doyle