Honiton Hornets 7, Darts III 0 Hornets bagged a clean sheet success to claim a 19th win in 20 outings and stay ahead of Isca in a thrilling battle for the Petroc 2 top honour.

A feature of the contest was the Dart goalkeeper’s performance. She made a number of excellent stops and, without her formidable contribution; the wining margin would surely have been greater.

Birthday-girl Dawn Mayo was first on the score sheet when she finished off a well weighted pass into the circle from Vanessa Trude with a neat flick past the goal keeper. The lead was doubled courtesy of an assist from Lucy Le Cocq and a clinical Jean Herniman finish.

Sophie George scored next when pressure from Dawn Mayo on the Dart defence caused the defender to make a mistake clearing the ball and a first-time George strike ricocheted off the keeper’s pads into the left corner of the goal. The final goal of the first half came from a strong first time shot from Amy Phillips. The power of the ball was such that whilst the keeper managed to get to the ball there wasn’t much she could do to stop it going over the line!

After the break three more goals came Honiton’s way. Katrina Tucker scored after a weaving left wing raid and a slicing reverse stick first-time shot.

George then doubled her tally from a great cross-field pass from Katrina Tucker which allowed George, Becky Hammett and Herniman space to work the ball around the Dart defence and into the circle where George applied the finish.

The final goal arrived following a fine individual run from Hammett which ended with her shot being deflected past the keeper by Emma Adams.

The score-line suggests a one-sided affair, but the whole Honiton team had to put a shift in to reap the full-time rewards. The defence of Becky Bond, Sami Parke, Sue Stone, Vicky Morris and Lorraine Ritchie made it very hard for the Dart team to fashion any genuine scoring attempts.

The Player of the Match award went to Laura Frank.

Petroc 2 table;

P W D L F A Pts

1 Honiton Hornets 20 19 0 1 106 11 57

2 Isca V 20 19 0 1 108 19 57

3 Ashmoor 19 11 4 4 54 23 37

4 Okehampton II 20 12 1 7 53 39 37

5 SOHC III 20 10 2 8 60 38 32

6 Dart II 20 9 3 8 35 34 30

7 Exe IV 20 8 4 8 29 38 28

8 SOHC IV 20 8 2 10 37 62 26

9 Teign III 20 5 2 13 22 64 17

10 White Eagles III 19 4 1 14 18 69 13

11 Dart III 20 2 2 16 13 72 8

12 Torbay II 20 1 1 18 18 84 1 **