Reading Women, playing in the European Indoor Trophy in
Lithuania, drew their first promotion pool match this afternoon. (Our apologies
– in our earlier news report we suggested that they were through to the
semi-final. There is, of course, no
semi-finals in the second-tier Trophy competition.)
Reading drew 2-2 against Gintra Strekte 2-2. The result puts them at the top of the
promotion pool. Reading play Dundee
Wanderers in their final match tomorrow.
The top two finishers are promoted to the top tier Championships
tournament in 2015.
Reading’s absence meant that they took no part in the Investec Premiership today. Meanwhile, a single penalty corner conversion by Canterbury’s Nicola Lloyd was
enough to give the Kent club a 1-0 win over Beeston, and open the gap between
them and second place Reading to four points.
Leicester’s recent revival slightly hit the buffers when
they went down 0-1 to Clifton. A late
penalty corner from Elizabeth Sinton gave Clifton the win, and Leicester slip
down to fifth place, whilst Clifton move up to fourth.
It was a late goal from Birmingham University’s Holly Payne
that gave the students a 2-3 win over Bowdon Hightown. It was another Holly,
Holly Hunt, that had given Bowdon a 2-0 lead, but Lily Owsley and Alice Sharp
pulled two back for the students, before Payne scored the winner. Birmingham
remain in eighth, whilst Bowdon move down to sixth.
The bottom on the table clash ended, predictably, with Olton
losing 1-4 to Sutton Coldfield.
There were no changes in the North Conference today other
than Whitley Bay moving up to fifth after a 0-1 win over bottom placed Doncaster,
and Loughborough Students moving down to sixth after their draw against Kendal.
Slough stay top of the West Conference after a 0-5 win over
Bristol Firebrands. Buckingham are close
on their tail, two points behind, after a 5-0 win over Exe.
TalkHockeyRadio was at Ipswich for their East Conference
match against Wimbledon this afternoon.
Two once-great neighbours, Ipswich and Chelmsford are currently
occupying ninth and tenth respectively, and are fighting for their national
league survival.
Interestingly, Ipswich looked the better of the two sides
for much of the first half, but Harriet Naismith put the London side ahead just
before half time. Although the balance of power seemed for evenly distributed
in the second half, Ipswich had far the greater share of opportunities, and
eventually their Sarah Bamfield scored the equaliser with only a minute of play
left.
The 1-1 result may give Ipswich some belief in themselves,
and the draw closes the gap between them and eighth placed Old Loughtonians to
two points. At the top of the table
leaders Holcombe recorded a 0-5 win over Sevenoaks, whilst second placed lost
0-3 to St Albans.
PICTURES OF THE MATCH BETWEEN IPSWICH AND WIMBLEDON ARE ON
OUR PICTURES SITE AT WWW.HOCKEYIMAGES.CO.UK.
FULL RESULTS AND TABLES ARE ON OUR MAIN WEB SITE AT WWW.TALKHOCKEYRADIO.CO.UK.
