It was a good day at the office for Reading this afternoon as their two Premiership sides played a double header at home.
Despite having only two of their GB players present, Reading's women dominated second place Leicester. The writing was on the wall early in the match when Alex Danson opened the scoring after only three minutes. There was a lull in the scoring until Emma Thomas scored her side's second nine minutes after the break. Lisa Letchford wrapped it up for Reading with a penalty corner strike in the 60th minute.
Reading's win opens up the points between Reading and Leicester to 10, and with only 12 points available until the end of the season, a table topping finish is as good as in the bag.
Leicester have a game in hand over third place Clifton, who overcame Sutton Coldfield 4-0. Jenny Wilson scored a hat-trick in Canterbury's 9-3 win over relegated Cannock, whilst Slough's 2-3 defeat at the home to Olton & West Warwicks leaves them perilously close to the relegation play-off zone.
The two matches in the Men's Premiership saw a total of 15 goals. TalkHockeyRadio was at Reading to witness something that was more of an execution than a defeat, with Reading displaying some clinical finishing to win the match 7-1. On what had been a bright and pleasant afternoon, the storm clouds rolled in towards the end of the match like a portent of doom, and Bowdon have only four matches to climb out of the play-off spot. On what we witnessed this afternoon, they are going to struggle.
The other Premiership game saw East Grinstead put six past bottom place University of Exeter. The Men's Premier Division has now caught up with the backlog and there are no games in hand.
Full results and tables from today are on our web site at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk. Images from the double header at reading will be on our site at www.hockeyimages.co.uk tomorrow morning.
