Sam Bateman claimed a large chunk of club hockey history on Saturday as he scored 11 goals in Kenley’s 12-0 thumping of Camberley.
Hot shot: Sam Bateman’s 11 goals for Kenley on Saturday brings his total for the season to 36
“In my 46 years in hockey, I have never heard of anyone scoring anything like this number of goals in a game,” an astonished, and proud, former Kenley HC chairman, Crispin Williams, told Inside Croydon.
According to the Guinness Book of Records the most goals scored by an individual player in a club hockey game is 19. But that was from back in December 1910, when MC Marckx was playing for Bowdon 2nds against Brooklands, where the final score was 23-0, and hockey was significantly different to the modern game.
Bateman, who is 26, is enjoying a hot streak of form, having now scored 36 goals this season.
Kenley’s top men’s team is dominating their division, topping the table of the South East Div2 Oaks – the fourth tier of English hockey.
Final score: the results from Saturday’s latest fixtures in South East Div2 Oaks
“I scored six in the first half, and so was on a high at halftime,” Bateman told Inside Croydon.
It was one of those days when everything went just right for Bateman and his Kenley teammates.
“By the end of the first-half all I could think was ‘I can’t miss!’ – although I did miss a few!” he said.
“I wanted the ball every time we attacked. Everything just fell for me and the 11th goal was the prime example of this.
“It just fell perfectly to me in the D and I swung my stick at it and it was in.”
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