Grove pile on pressure

Grove Menzieshill’s league win on Saturday kept up the pressure on title rivals Edinburgh University and Clydesdale Western, but their Scottish Cup interest ended disappointingly, along with city neighbours Wanderers, in Sunday’s penultimate stage at Meggetland, writes our women’s hockey correspondent.

Edinburgh accounted for Grove 3-1, with Western inflicting a 4-0 defeat on Wanderers.

Scottish champions Edinburgh ramped up their league defence with a 10-0 rout of Cala, with Clydesdale Western and Grove hovering a point off the pace.

Hanna McKie, Pauline Stott and Nic Skrastin added to Sarah Jamieson’s double as Grove continued their unbeaten campaign with a 5-1 win away to Kelburne.

At Dalnacraig Charlotte Watson struck a blow for Wanderers, but by half time Western were on terms.

The visitors deservedly forged a 4-1 advantage through Ali Howie, Jen Eadie, Lucy Lanigan and Heather Lang before a glaring error gifted the ball to Vikki Bunce, who scored a second consolation.

St Andrews University returned from Borders Reivers with a Division 2 point.

Their Dundee counterparts lost out to their Glasgow peers at Riverside.

While Edinburgh University III were shattering Kinross’ hopes of a home win in Championship A, Grove’s reserve string split the points with Aberdeen’s students through Abby and Kirstin Hay, the former netting a nifty double.

Tayside teams had a Champ B day to forget with Dundee University II losing 10-1 to Watsonians, while St Andrews II went down 5-0 to Kelburne and Perthshire were unable to raise sufficient players for the long haul to Ayr.