Tough start for Belper in opening home defeat
BELPER fell to a 3-1 home defeat against Leicester in their opening game of the Investec Women’s Hockey League Conference North campaign.
The home side started well, pressing high in the Leicester half and forcing an early short corner as well as a couple of shots on goal.
However, 10 minutes into the game Leicester showed some quality and experience when former GB international Katie Long fired home an impressive reverse shot for a 1-0 half-time lead.
Leicester underlined their quality and experience after the break with two more goals but Belper were determined to get something out of the contest.
And in the last minute they were rewarded when a great team move set up Sally Goodman, who fired a hard strike into the bottom corner of the Leicester goal.
Belper have plenty of positives to take forward into the next game away at Durham University.
Muhammed Shahbaz scored four as Ramgarhia Derby won 6-3 at Leicester 2nds in the Midland Men’s South East Premier.
Ramgarhia were on the front foot from the start and scored three quick goals.
Nin Manku scored the first after beating three players to hit a sweet reverse stick past the keeper.
Shahbaz then found space inside the dee to make it 2-0 before the same player beat two players and slotted past the keeper for Ramgarhia’s third.
They conceded two sloppy goals to make it 3-2 at half-time but were back on the attack after the break.
Shahbaz completed his hat-trick as he beat one player and hit a reverse stick shot into the top cornee.
Kyle Faulkner extended the lead when he slotted in a routine penalty corner to make it 5-2.
Leicester still had some fight in them as they scored against the run of play after a loose ball wasn’t cleared in the Ramgarhia dee.
But Ramgarhia continued to play the high press which paid dividends when Shahbaz scored his fourth.
Man of the match Martin Kentwell and Martin Jones scored four goals each as Repton Men’s 1sts won 10-1 away against Rugby and East Warwickshire 3rds in the East Midlands Premier Division.
The Midlands Leagues have moved to an open league structure, with second and third teams now included in the tiers, so it will take a few years to balance out and will lead to some one-sided games.
This was one of them as Repton surged to a 5-1 half-time lead, Jones hitting a first-half hat-trick after Marcus Tarrant had opened the scoring and Kentwell scored his first.
Kentwell scored three more after the break, Jones chipped in with another and Xavier Teyletche completed the scoring for the visitors.
Repton Ladies 2nds drew 2-2 away at Staveley in the Derbyshire First Division.
Repton made a very strong start featuring some fantastic midfield play from newcomer Katrina Haid but they were unable to stop a strong Staveley side from scoring after 20 minutes.
A penalty flick early in the second half gave Staveley a second but Repton continued to dominate play and Amy Benn pulled a goal back from a short corner.
And Repton levelled from another short corner, Hannah Cochran on target.
Ashbourne Ladies were held to a 1-1 draw to start a new season in Midlands Feeder East.
They started well in their home match against Newark Ladies, Caz Thompson and Rachel Bailey finding gaps from midfield to supply Liv McCann and Sarah Walker up front.
But they were unable to find the breakthrough and Newark began to put the Ashbourne defensive trio of Kath Brown, Hannah Caton and Helen Williams under pressure midway through the first half.
Louise Cook in goal was called on to make a number of saves to keep the scoreline blank going into halftime.
Ashbourne came out after the interval determined to push players higher to strengthen the attack and it brought them the first goal following a slick passing move between Janet Chadfield and Becky Handford to set up Walker, who beat the keeper to make it 1-0.
With Olivia Jefferies and Beth Fenton making their debuts, Ashbourne looked in charge but they conceded an equaliser from a penalty corner and despite piling on the pressure for the remainder of the game, they could not regain the lead.
Player of the match was Rachel Twemlow.
Ashbourne’s next game is away to Nottingham University on Saturday (2.30pm).