Super Saturday to celebrate going up
Marlow Hockey Club: Women's first team promoted to the National League
Marlow Hockey Club are set to hold a special ‘Super Saturday’ event at Pound Lane this weekend to mark the women’s first teams title win and elevation to the National League.
The Reds wrapped up the South Central Women’s Premier Division title with several matches to spare after a 6-2 win over Maidenhead at Pound Land.
They may have gone down to a suprise 5-4 defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday, but the team will be keen to bounce back when they take on Trojans 2nds from 2.45pm on Saturday.
Both the women’s first and second teams will be in action during the afternoon and there will be a pitchside bar from 2pm and a cocktail night at the club following the conclusion of the matches.
The Reds 5th team are also in action from 2pm at the Redgrave Centre in a game which could also seal their promotion.
Having wrapped up the title and promotion, the Reds travelled to Bournemouth with slightly less focus than usual, but they still played their part in a classic encounter.
Bournemouth opened the scoring inside the first two minutes, but Martha Goodridge equalised minutes later from a penalty corner. The frenetic start continued with Lauren Hilditch firing the Reds in front in the seventh minute before Bournemouth responded to level matters again in the 16th minute. Marlow keeper Alys Ramm made several fine saves during the half but couldn’t prevent the hosts from scoring again to make it 3-2 at the interval. Marlow were back on terms within a minute of the restart when Hilditch scored her second of the game, but the Reds were less resilient in defence than they’ve been of late, and Bournemouth restored their lead in the 50th minute. Rachel Clarke played in Hilditch to complete her hat-trick, but Bournemouth managed to score a fifth to take all three points before the end.
Elsewhere, the 2nds beat Basingstoke 2nds 2-1 away.
Marlow Men’s 1sts remain sixth in the South Central Men’s Premier Division, despite going down to a deserved 3-0 home defeat against Oxford OBU.
The second placed visitors were lively in attack and solid in defence meaning Marlow created few clear-cut chances despite seeing plenty of the ball.
Oxford scored from two well executed penalty corners in the first half and made it 3-0 shortly before the end after a more evenly contested second period.
Despite the result, Marlow remain sixth, well ahead of the teams below them with two matches to play at Haslemere (March 23) and home to Henley (April 6).
Goals from former Maidenhead players Alec Land and Phil Cowell helped Marlow’s 2nd team to a 4-0 win against their old side at Altwood School on Saturday.
Dan Field and Mal Allick were also on target as the Reds claimed a dominant away win over Maids.
The result puts them in sixth place in their first season at this level.