Oxford Hawks Ladies 1 Surbiton Ladies 4

Surbiton Ladies finished the first half of the South Clubs Women’s Hockey League Division One season on Saturday, winning a game where set-pieces were far more effective than open-play opportunities, with four of the five goals coming from penalty corners.

Oxford had kept a clean sheet the previous week at Havant but Surbiton, missing Georgie Parker, who has returned to Australia until the beginning of February, and Maddie Tait, needed only eight minutes to take the lead. Sian Craze scored the only open-play goal of the game, after the visitors had applied solid pressure from the start.

Six minutes later, Surbiton doubled their lead from their first penalty corner, Emma Jones clinically striking the ball against the backboard. To their credit, Hawks had briefly threatened, however, Emma Royce successfully cleared an open-play attack with Bethan Jenkins and Craze competent in defence against penalty corners.

In the 25th minute, Jones performed her penalty corner magic trick once more, the ball quickly rebounding off the backboard to give the visitors a 3-0 half-time lead.

At the start of the second half, Hawks successfully defended three penalty corners in three minutes, but fell 4-0 behind in the 48th minute as Jones completed her penalty corner hat-trick.

Hawks’ one breakthrough came in the 56th minute, Marie Warwick scoring a consolation penalty corner conversion.

Surbiton still lead by four points over Reading 1A, who won 5-2; and six points over Southampton, who won 4-1 at Reading. Epsom returned to third place, nine points behind the league leaders, replacing Hampstead & Westminster, who were beaten 2-1.

The season resumes on January 30, when Surbiton return to the university city, to play bottom team Rover Oxford, who lost 6-0 at Sugden Road in the opening league match of the season in September.

SURBITON LADIES: Heunis (GK & Capt.), Jenkins, Heptonstall, Royce, Hanson-Akins, Jolly, Taylor, Oakes, Grant, Craze, Jones. Subs: Bradshaw, Clacher, James.

On Sunday, Surbiton’s U16 Girls side lost 5-2 at Teddington in the third round of the England Hockey Cup. The match had been scheduled to take place at Teddington School but, as the pitch was flooded due to heavy rain, the fixture was moved at short notice to St Mary’s College.

Surbiton recovered from a 2-0 deficit to be back on level terms by half-time. Olivia Chilton had scored both Teddington goals in the 10th and 21st minutes, but an eventful last two minutes before the break saw first, Ellie Tait convert a penalty stroke; then Emma Broad equalise from a penalty corner.

The scoreline remained at 2-2 until, with heavy rain falling, Teddington struck three times in an 11-minute spell. Libby Williams regained the lead in the 53rd minute and, two minutes later, Livvy Martineau scored Teddington’s fourth, with Fleur Gibson clinching the home side’s place in the fourth round with a 64th-minute effort.

In other competitions, Surbiton’s U18 Boys received a walkover following Yateley’s withdrawal from the Under 18 Cup, and there were two dramatic matches at Horsham, as Surbiton’s U16 boys and U18 girls needed penalty strokes to progress to the next round of the Plate and Cup respectively.