England Hockey League 2023/24: Weekend 2 Review

Buckingham maintain their 100% record after three weeks in Division One North following their 4-1 win over Leicester City.

Meanwhile, Gloucester City, having lost the use of their home ground pitch at Oxstalls Plock Court less than two weeks ago hosted Olton & West Warwickshire at Wycliffe College, despite being 3-2 down in the half showed further grit and determination to secure a 5-3 win. Laila Howse scored two field goals, Michelle Williams being on target to score two Penalty Corners and Maddie Children scoring also.

Sutton Coldfield narrowly maintained their winning ways with a 3-2 victory over Ben Rhydding, courtesy of two goals from Emma McCabe in the third and 67^th Minutes and one from Bethan Merriman in the 52^nd Minute.  

Stourport secured their first win of the season beating Struggling Swansea 2-0

Durham University Hosted Wakefield on Friday evening and secured a 2-1 victory with Katie Birch converting two penalty corners.

Surbiton 2s maintain their 100% record to top Division One South following a 4-2 victory over Southgate, while Holcombe secured a further 3pts with their 3-0 win over Sevenoaks.

Barnes, having won their first two games, dropped points with a 3-0 defeat to Slough moving them to second placed in the table on 7pts. Sloughs goals all came from open played scored by Anna Baker, Sophy Stonehouse and Natalie Telfer.

Canterbury secured their second win to oversee Wimbledon 2-0 courtesy of goals scored early in the game from a penalty corner from Mel Clewlow on 5 minutes and a field goal from Alice Brett on 10 minutes.

Harleston Magpies travelled to face newly promoted Team Bath Buccaneers on Sunday which saw the home side secure their first win of the season. Team Bath Buccaneers went 2-0 up in the first half with goals from Eva -Rose Ferguson & Ella Armstrong, Harleston Magpies Anna Cogell converted a Penalty corner in the 50^th minute to make it 2-1 but the home side then went on to complete their 3-1 victory in the 67^th minute with a field goal from Annie Wilson.

Guildford continue to lead the way on 9 points in Conference East after a narrow 4-3 win over newly promoted Old Georgians. The game saw Robyn Bentley open the scoring for Guildford in the 2^nd minute followed by an equalizer in the 12^th minute scored by Zoe Shepard for Old Georgians

Guildford went in at half time 2-1 up with Alice O’Hagan having converted a penalty corner in the 32 minute. Old Georgians responded at the start of the second half to score two further goals by Elizabeth Williams and Emily Dove to give them a 3-2 lead but they were unable to hold on to this advantage and Guildford responded to equalize by scoring a penalty corner in the 52nd minute through Sophie Byrne and then secured their win with a final field goal scored by Lucy Wood.

Teddington maintain third spot in the table despite narrowly losing 3-2 to Horsham. 

Spencer secured their second win with a 3-0 win over Ipswich with goals being scored by Maddie Cleat and two by Sarah Dawkins. Elsewhere London Wayfarers v Old Loughtonians and East London V Hampstead & Westminster could only result in 1-1 draws.    

This week saw closely contested games across the whole on the Conference Midlands

St Albans 2-2 draw with Cambridge City keeps them narrowly at the top of the table with just a better goal difference of 6 over Cambridge City.

Repton held on to a 2-2 draw with Beeston having gone down 2-1 to Beeston following Bella Davies -Roche Conversion from a penalty stroke awarded in the 59 minute. Repton equalized in the 69^th minute from a penalty corner scored by Tabby Vaughan.

Bedfords 2-1 win over Oxford University sees their first win of the season with goals from Kate Costin & Megan Hewlett both from penalty corners.

Cannock beat University Of Birmingham 2s 2-1 with both Cannock goals being scored by Jodie Beddow and Doncaster also could only narrowly hold on to a 2-1win his week. 

Fylde still are the only team in Conference North with a 100% record by narrowly beating Bowdon 2s 1-0

Pendle Forest travelled to Leeds and gained their second win of their campaign with Charlotte Hartley scoring a hat trick to secure a 3-1 victory.

Durham University secured 3pts with a 2-1 win over Brooklands Poynton, while saw two draws Timperley v Newcastle University and Didsbury Northern v Harrogate.

Witney have now moved to top of the table of Conference West following their 6-0 win over Exeter, Witney goals came from Tacita Haines, Ellie Norton Charlotte Sharpe & Sam Saunders all scoring one each and Mille Hartwell scoring two.

Trojans & Reading both secured their second win’s of the season with victories over Oxford Hawks & newly promoted Clifton Robinsons to move Trojans to second and Reading to third in the table.

Cheltenham beat Basingstoke 2-0 to take their first 3pts with both goals being scored by Alice Shea from a penalty stroke in the 5^th minute and another from a penalty corner in the 54^th minute.

Bristol Firebrands & Fareham battled out a 1-1 draw seeing the home side take the lead in the 8^th minute through a field goal scored by Maria Andrews, Fareham equalized in the 55^th minute when Alice lander converted a penalty corner.  

Bowdon are the only team now in Division One North to have maintained a 100% record after three games, following their 6-1 victory against Loughborough.

Leeds picked up their first points of the season, beating Deeside Ramblers 4-3 with goals coming from Charlie Smith, Cam Foster Oliver Cook and Oliver Manson converting a Penalty Stroke in the 64^th minute to secure the win.

Harborne also secured their first 3 points with a 4-3 victory over the University of Birmingham goals coming from Alex Idoine, Tom Poustie, Oliver Horsler & Mike Baddesley.

Brooklands Manchester University took 3 points from Durham University with a 4-2 victory, goals came from Leo Watton in the 20^th minute, David Flanagan scoring twice from a Field Goal in the 4^th Minute and a Penalty Stroke in the 57^th Minute Freddie Davies sealed the win with another field goal in the 70^th minute.

Olton & West Warwickshire continue their winning ways with a 3-2 victory over Cambridge City to take them to 4^th place in the table with goals from Jacob Fenwick, Fergus Roll & Chris Beck. 

In Division One South Canterbury have moved to the top of the table with three wins from three with a narrow 2-1 win over Team Bath Buccaneers, with Tom Bean scoring both goals.

Old Cranleighan's 2-3 defeat to Richmond moves them to second place in the division, with Richmond scoring all three goals from penalty corners. Havant also dropped points with their defeat to Old Loughtonians with four goals from Conor Caplan, Max Sydenham, Jack Moffat & Sam Lowe. University of Exeter held on for a 3-3 draw against Teddington, after going 3-0 up in the first half with Teddington’s Matt Daly Jack Stubbings & Jagdeep Gill all converting in the second half. 

Brighton & Hove travelled to Sevenoaks and were narrowly beaten 2-1 after taking the lead through a field goal converted by James Rayward in the 55th minute, only to concede a penalty stroke in the 57th minute with James Beck stepping up to equalize 1-1 Alex Thomson then secured victory for Sevenoaks with another field goal in the 62^nd minute.

Guilford maintains their place at the top of Conference East after a 3-3 draw with Bromley & Beckenham.

Bromley & Beckenham fought back after being 3-1 down with Joseph Mulholland converting two Penalty Corners in the 64^th & 69^th Minutes.

London Wayfarers put on a display to score four goals to beat Wimbledon 4-2 with Simon Hanley Henry Patteson Elliot Killington & Arthur Hughes all converting.  

Surbiton beat Hampstead and Westminster 3-1 as well and Spencer beating Ipswich 4-2 which keeps both teams in the top three of the table on the same points and goal difference while Old Georgians suffer a third defeat with a 4-1 loss to Indian Gymkhana.

In Conference North Lindum have destroyed Timperley’s high scorers record after weeks 1& 2 and beaten them 8-4 which now sees Timperley third in the table but only 1pt behind Lindum.  Doncaster, are now top following a 3-1 win over Beeston with goals coming from Ben West and two Penalty corners converted by Matt Gibson.

Martin Sutherland helped Wakefield secure their 4-3 victory over Oxton before facing Brooklands Manchester University who narrowly beat Sheffield 3-2 with goals from Nick Little, Josh Lang & James Lavers all in the first half.

Will Musgrave, George Gamble & Colin Franks' goals helped Ben Rhydding to a 3-0 win over Belper.   

Nottingham University 2s made it three wins out of three in Conference Midlands with a narrow 2-1 win over Harleston Magpies

St Albans could only hold on to a 1-1 draw against Bedford with Taylor Bland scoring the equalizer in the 48^th Minute.

Promoted Banbury will be pleased with their first win of the season beating the University of Birmingham 2s 4-2 with goals from Harry Simons, Jacob Buckner-Rowley, Nathan Hochman & Will Kellet.

Norwich City have also gained their first win of the season with a 3-2 victory over Stourport with Cameron Cooke converting a penalty stroke & penalty corner in the 28^th & 30^th minutes and David Gilbert securing victory with a field goal in the 66^th minute. 

The game against City Of Peterborough v Barford Tigers was abandoned in the 64^th Minute due to a medical emergency.

Isca’s 6-2 victory over newly promoted Cheltenham sees them top of the table, with Cuthbert Shepard scoring a hat trick.

Clifton Robinsons' second win of the season beating Oxford Hawks 3-1 brings them to third place in the table with goals from Ben Stone, Isacc Hocking & Lewis Francuz.

Local derby Exeter University 2s v Ashmoor saw Ashmoor securing a 2-0 win with goals from Matt Collinson & Matt Lear.

Plymouth Marjons travelled to Fareham to gain 1pt from a 4-4 draw after seeing the visitors going 3-2 up in the first half following goals from Matt Butt & two from Ben Hedley, Fareham equalized on 44 minutes with a field goal from Oliver Pemble only to concede a penalty corner 4 minutes later which was converted by Plymouth Marjons Jon Tew, Fareham continued to battle and were rewarded with the equalizing goal scored by Matthew Dicker in the 55th minute.

Chichester lost at home 0-3 to the University of Bristol with Tom Harris scoring twice from Penalty corners for the university with the other goal coming from Will Jones.