Premier League Women
Hampstead & Westminster’s 100% start to the season was ended at Loughborough Students where they were held to a 2-2 draw. Loughborough had taken a first quarter lead through Olivia Breed, but Hampstead fought back to 2-1 with goals from Holly Hunt and Sophia Martin before Amy Cradden equalized for Loughborough in the final minute. Surbiton, also unbeaten, won 3-1 to take over Bowdon at the top on goal difference. Erica Sanders, Darcy Bourne and Georgie Gardens gave Cheshire a 3-0 lead before Lucy Smith grabbed a late consolation for the home side, Bowdon’s seventh different goalscorer from their seven goals so far.
Birmingham University, who started the day third, saw their form upset as they were beaten for the first time at Nottingham University. Nottingham’s first points of the season came in a 2–1 win thanks to first-half goals from Kate Barker and Freya Robinson. Coca Hall scored in the second half for Birmingham, the fifth game in a row that she has found the net, but the visitors were unable to find an equalizer.
Reading replaced Birmingham in third place thanks to a 3-1 win over the still pointless Clifton Robinsons, with Lizzie Neal scoring two of their goals.
East Grinstead are fourth after a narrow 1-0 win over Barnes. Millie Giglio scored the only goal of the match as East Grinstead extended their unbeaten run to four games. Barnes remains scoreless.
Wimbledon jumped from ninth to fifth place thanks to a 1-0 win over Durham University, their third shut-out in four matches.
Open/First Division Men
There was a surprise in the Open/Men’s Premier Division, with leaders Old Georgians defeated 2-0 at home by Hampstead and Westminster. OGs, who returned to the competition after their success in the Euro Hockey League last weekend, were undone by first-half goals from Damon Steffens and Rupert Shipperley and were unable to recover. This marked the first time in almost four years that OGs did not score in a regular season game. The result means Surbiton, 5-2 winners over East Grinstead, take over the top with four wins out of four, while Hampstead joins OGs and two other teams on 10 points.
The match between Surbiton and East Grinstead was tied at 1-1 at half-time. Jacob Payton scored for Surbiton, while Jonty Elmes’s equalizer for EG just before the break scored for the fourth consecutive game. However, the home side had by far the better of the second half with a second for Payton and further goals for Gareth Furlong, Nick Bandurak, the second game in a row he has scored against a former club, and Conor Williamson, while Joe Farmer scored the visitor’s second.
Holcombe are also on 10 points after a thrilling 4-4 draw against Oxted. Holcombe came from 2-0 and 3-1 down to lead 4-3 with four minutes remaining, including two more goals for Teague Marcano, now the competition’s top scorer, but Oliver Bennett converted a 67th-minute strike for Oxted to share the points.
Wimbledon also moved up to 10 points, and along with Surbiton are the only other team unbeaten, following a 2-1 win at bottom of the table Beeston. The Bees made them work very hard for the points and Will Prentice canceled out Sam Hooper’s second-half goal for the visitors before Ben Francis grabbed the winner with five minutes to go.
Reading won 4-1 at Brooklands MU. The score was 1-1 at half time, but Reading pulled away in the second half with three unanswered goals. A single goal from Scott Rawlings was enough for Cardiff and Met to beat Southgate 1-0 and gave the Welsh their second win of the season. Southgate remained in second place with a point from their five games so far.
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