Honiton Hornets Hockey Club 2,

Sidmouth & Ottery Hockey Club 3rds 0

A brilliantly sunny morning welcomed the Hornets to the pitch at Sidmouth with the frost still glittering as it burned off the surface for what was both a local derby and something of a battle between the two top teams in Petroc 2 League, writes Ann Reed.

The previous weekend had seen Honiton leapfrog over Sidmouth to take top spot so both clubs had victory as the major priority!

Goals topped and tailed the match - one in the first five minutes, and one in the last.

With Honiton very much on the attack, the ball came across the circle to Vanessa Trude, who found herself rolling on the ground but she succeeded in righting herself sufficiently to slice the ball to the back of the net .

The match continued with both sides playing determinedly and energetically, but not always skilfully, as skill tended to go out of the window as stress levels rose!

No further goals were scored during the first half - even though play tended to be more in the home side’s half of the pitch, Honiton could not capitalise when in the SOHC circle (indeed throughout the match, the home team’s goalie had an excellent game deflecting a number of on-target balls).

A similar pattern of play continued throughout the second half and it was not until the last five minutes that Honiton’s Katrina Tucker, managing to evade glue-like defenders, was able to fire in for a great goal.

Honiton has cemented its position at the top of the league. Player of the Match was Emily Gawler.

?Practices continue on Wednesday evenings between 8-9pm on the all-weather surface adjacent to Honiton Sports Centre.

This surface is not the best for hockey sticks, and it is likely to cause damage to your stick so PLEASE, if possible, use an old stick for training.

All interested in hockey - regardless of current experience and skills - will be made most welcome, so just turn up!