Old Loughtonians W1s 5 - Sudbury W1s 0
Old Loughtonians Womens 1s maintained their 100% start to the season with a comfortable 5-0 victory against Sudbury W1s at Luxborough Lane in the East premier division.
Loughts pressed from the start and were rewarded when Emily Holmes opened the scoring on 16 minutes with a fierce straight strike from a penalty corner. On 26 minutes it was 2-0 as Chloe Menear produced a carbon copy of the first goal.
Just before the break Zara White’s raking pass was expertly deflected home at full stretch by Chantelle Fernandez to increase Loughts advantage to three. A slick penalty corner routine saw India Blake claim her first goal for Old Loughts with a close range finish 10 minutes into the second half from Tasha Patient’s pass. Loughts rounded off the scoring in the final minutes with a flowing team move resulting in India Blake combining with debutant Orla Cooke who found Em Davies at the far post who finished calmly to complete a comprehensive 5-0 win. Next Saturday Loughts are at home to newly promoted Havering W1s.
Old Loughtonians M1s 5 - Old Cranleaghan 1
Following their opening day win away at Bath Buccaneers, Loughts struggled to find their rhythm and form in the first half of this hard fought match in division 1 South of the England Hockey National league. Cranleighans arrived off the back of a defeat in their opening game against Sevenoaks and looked full of enterprise and intent to take home the points.
This was Loughts first league home game of the season and the team wanted to impress the swelling crowd. Captain Conor Caplan had to stand down late in the day and this may have played its part in a slightly languid first half.
Loughts started well and scored from a short corner in the 3rd minute when Will Godfrey hit the back board with some force ( a slammer!) after a well timed forehand strike. That should have settled the home side down but they continued the rest of the half making minor but unnecessary errors. It was therefore no surprise when Cranleighan's capitalised with a goal in the 24th minute.
At half time the game was in the balance and Loughts knew they needed to improve all round to earn all the points. Coach Lee Ible stressed the need to increase the tempo and quality on the ball; pass and move and stay calm.
Loughts firmly took control of the game in the third quarter scoring with 2 Ed Fleet penalty strokes after Cranleighan defenders twice illegally stopped penalty flicks on the line which would otherwise have found the net. Loughts settled down and started to play with authority. Euan Gilmore in particular looked up for the challenge and showed great skill and endeavour pressing and winning the ball high up in the pitch and then launching counter attacks with great skill.
Loughts finished off the game in style in the final quarter scoring 2 goals through acting captain Tom Watson who was on hand to finish off some of our best moves of the game. A great result in the end for a good team effort. Next week Loughts take on Brighton at home.
Other matches
Elsewhere there were some fine results for the men’s teams. In the East premier division the M2s won 10-1 against City of Ptereborough 2s with 3 goals from Archie Crowley, 2 from Martyn Lear and 1 apiece from Toby Gayler, Ollie Davies, Guy Morley-Jacob, Luca Gormley and Sam Lowe. The M3s played Potters Bar 1s and after conceding the first goal and hitting the woodwork 3 times finally turned the game around and won 5-1 with Ed Padfield leading the scoring. The M4s scored 9 in a one way 9-0 win away against Braintree 2s and the M5s beat first team Rochford M1s 4-1 with goals from Andy Foinette, Rob Simmons, Phil Beauman and Simon Moffat. The M6s lost narrowly 0-1 to Old Southendians 4s, the M8s lost 2-7 away to Saffron Walden 7s and the supervets, with a new look team, lost 2-6 at Hampstead & Westminster.
The L2s had another tough fixture in the South 1 division and lost 0-4 away to Blueharts 1s. The L3s continued their good start to the season winning 3-0 against Havering 2s with goals from Ellie Joyce (2) and Jen Hutson. Rachel Campbell scored for the L4s who lost 1-5 away at Braintree 2s and Keira Keogh netted twice as the L5s came back from 2-0 down to draw away at Upminster 5s.