Cambridge South take lessons from entertaining battle with Bury

CAMBRIDGE South Hockey Club’s women’s first team signed off a strong season with a see-saw 4-2 defeat away by Division 1N champions Bury St Edmunds.

South came into the game sure to finish third in the table, and looking to test themselves against a side who were in the East Premier in 2022-23 and will be back there again in 2024-25 – a league South also have aspiration of reaching after competing hard for promotion in this campaign.

This game served as a useful barometer of where the visitors are at, and where they will need to be if they want to come close next term to matching Bury’s impressive 20-1-1 record from this campaign.

South had plenty of positives to take from the game, as they recovered from going 1-0 down to level, and then responded again when Bury has established a two-goal cushion at 3-1 to make the final minutes interesting.

South’s scorer on both occasions was Hannah Snow, but despite her efforts it was Bury who got the late strike to seal the win, leaving South skipper Jenny Soderman and coach Tim Winter with much to ponder through the summer.

South’s player-of-the-match was midfielder Sophie Dixon, who was playing her final game for the club prior to returning to university. Her speed of foot and impressive dexterity with her stick will be missed.

Meanwhile, South second team’s outside hopes of promotion from Division 2NW died at the Ivo Outdoor Centre as they were beaten 4-2 by St Ives.

South came into the game looking for a win and hoping other results would go their way to allow them to sneak up from third into the top two on the season’s last day.

The equation fell apart for South from on the first part as they fell a goal behind as early as the second minute, leaving them always chasing the game.

Emily Bird struck on 23 minutes to give the visitors hope… but that came a minute after the Saints had made it 2-0.

Jess Foord was also on target before the break, the forward converting from the penalty spot to take her seasonal tally up to 27 league goals, but once again this was a response a few minutes after the Saints had gone two goals ahead.

St Ives restored their two goal cushion for the third time just over ten minutes into the second half, which proved too much for South to overcome as they slipped to a defeat that was academic as the top two sides in 2NW both won their fixtures anyway.

South’s player-of-the-match was wing-back Emily Morris, whose lightning pace was a constant thorn in the Saints flank.

South thirds wrapped up their Division 2NW campaign, which has been difficult at times but has proved to ultimately be successful, with a 4-1 home defeat against Spalding.

South came into the final day practically assured of safety in the division as they held a three point and plus-22 goal difference lead over relegation rivals Long Sutton.

The Lincolnshire side exerted what pressure they could as their match against the bottom side was won 5-0, but all that meant was South need to avoid losing this game 17-0, something they were never in danger of doing.

It was indicative of how tough South have found scoring this season that Lucy Bedford’s strike, the converted centre-back’s second of the campaign, made her the team’s joint second-top scorer behind Charlotte Moyns four.

South only managed 15 goals, but spread those around enough to collect 11 points, and most importantly they never folded at the back – a key point in recent weeks coming in a 0-0 draw against Cambridge City V, the backline holding firm enough in this one to restrict Spalding to just four.

South’s player-of-the-match was Daisy Storey, whose running and distribution of the ball stood out.

Elsewhere, South fourths lost 3-0 to Huntingdon & Northstowe and South fifths lost 1-0 to St Neots III.