Three’s the magic number
With the Men’s Hockey League and Women’s Vitality League returning this weekend, Team Bath Buccaneers’ men’s second side made it three wins in a row to move into third in the West Men’s Premier. They beat Wotton-under-edge 5-1 at the University of Bath to extend their unbeaten run to ten games, since Wotton beat them 2-0 in October.
In Division One North, Buccs 3rd were beaten 4-1 at Gloucester City but remain level on points with second-place University of Bristol 2nd who were also beaten. City of Bath won their first game since November in their only outing of 2022 when they beat Marlborough 3-2 last Wednesday.
City of Bath 2nd enjoyed a mixed weekend in Division Two East. After losing 2-1 at home to Buccs 4th in the derby on Saturday, Bath were able to hold off Newent 3-2 the following day to claim their first victory of the campaign. Buccs 5th drew 1-1 at home to Ross on Wye to claim a second consecutive stalemate and move on to eight points of the season. Buccs 4th stopped their own losing streak to go fourth on goal difference.
Keynsham made it 14 games unbeaten at the top of Concorde Division One with a 5-1 win at Mendip 2nd.
Bottom side City of Bath 4th were thrashed 8-0 at home to secondplace Clifton Robinsons 5th. Keynsham 2nd edged a seven-goal thriller in Concorde Division Two at home to North Somerset 3rd for a second consecutive victory.
Corsham remain two points off Saxon Division One leaders Swindon 2nd following their 9-0 hounding of second-bottom Cirencester 3rd, whose second side beaten City of Bath 3rd 5-1 for their third defeat in four games. Buccs 7th played out a 3-3 draw at home to West Wilts 2nd.
Saxon Division Two bottom side Buccs 8th were beaten 8-2 at Swindon 3rd, while Corsham 2nd lost for the second successive time by the same scoreline at Chippenham 4th.
In the women’s leagues, Buccs 2nd held on to beat Taunton Vale 3-2 in the Premier Division to remain a point ahead at the top with their third win in five games. Corsham fell to fifth in Division Two East after narrowly losing 2-1 at BAC, while Buccs 3rd enjoyed a 4-0 win at Devizes to stay three points clear at the top with a game in hand.
Berkeley Division One leaders Keynsham continued their unbeaten assault with a 9-0 thrashing of bottom side hosts Lydney 3rd. Buccs 4th were unable to take advantage of Whitehorse Division One leaders North Wilts’ slip up as they were beaten 3-1 at West Wilts to remain three points behind having played a game more.
City of Bath beat the leaders 3-2 to move level with Buccs, with a game in hand on their cross-city rivals. City of Bath’s second side were thrashed 7-1 at Corsham 2nd in the derby to remain without a win so far this season, while Keynsham 2nd beat second bottom Chippenham 3rd 2-0.
In Whitehorse Division Two, Buccs 5th made it two wins from three with a 5-2 victory at home to Royal Wootton Bassett 3rd.
The sixth side were hammered 8-2 at leaders North Wilts 2nd, with Corsham 3rd losing 4-1 at home to second-place Devizes 2nd to slip to fourth behind Buccs 5th.