After the first nine games of the season Old Loughts Men’s 1s sit happily at the top of the East Conference of the England Hockey National League; four points clear with a superior goal difference. Loughts would have been extremely happy to settle for this at the start of the campaign.

Team sports can however be cruel at times. With Richmond and London Edwardians drawing earlier in the day, Loughts had a golden opportunity to go 7 points clear at the turn. Pre match preparations had been well crafted by coach Lee and the whole team had trained well and arrived at Lea Valley plucky and intending to bag a hatful of goals against mid table but improving local rivals Wapping.

After pre season losses to Old Loughts, Wapping had other ideas! They came out of the traps quickly and really took the game to Loughts who conceded after 15 minutes from a Wapping short corner which bounced in off the bar. Wapping’s aerial threat, sending penetrating balls deep into the Loughts half, worked well for them. Despite no little effort on the part of the league leaders, nothing seemed to be going right for Loughts who found it difficult to get any flow into their game on the wet heavy pitch.

After a much better second quarter Loughts felt that they were slowly starting to claw themselves back into the game. However, Wapping were awarded another short corner in the 42nd minute from which they scored and Loughts were facing an uphill task.
Loughts scored 3 minutes later with a short corner of our own, well struck by Will Godfrey, and it looked as if the tide might finally turn.

The last quarter was pretty frantic with Loughts surging forward for the equaliser but Wapping were dangerous on the counter. To the disappointment of the team and the Loughts crowd, which gave the team vociferous support throughout, neither an equaliser nor a winning goal appeared.

There are no easy games in this League. The break will be welcome and give those players carrying injuries time to recuperate. Loughts look forward to the second half of the season with optimism after some exciting hockey so far.

The men’s 2s joined the men’s 1s as league leaders after a 4 – 0 win away against Havering 1s in the East 1st division south. Jack Moffat scored his first goal for the team, Martyn Lear continued his goal scoring form with a brace and Toby Gayler scored as well. It is now 250 minutes since the team conceded a goal and they have scored 18 goals in that same time period.

The M3s Foresters were also back to winning ways and back up to third after a 7 -1 win against Saffron Walden 2s and the M4s Academy won 4 -1 against Tendring 1s. The M6s continued their imperious form with a 7 – 0 win away against Chelmsford 7s to retain a 100% record and in the same division the M7s Willows Woodsmen won 6 – 0 against Redbridge & Ilford 3s and stay in 3rd. The M8s Willows Rangers lost 3 – 0 away against Basildon 2s and the M9s Willows Axemen succumbed 3 – 1 to Waltham Forest 3s.

The M5s Loppers and Ladies 1s matches were postponed with opposition teams having to isolate. The L2s lost 3 – 0 away against Malden 1s and drop to 2nd in the table, the L3s with only 11 players had a good 1 -1 draw with Thurrock 2s and the L4s won 2 – 0 against Thurrock 3s and sit 2nd in their division as well. In the top of the table clash between the two previously unbeaten leaders Bishop Stortford won 5 -3 against Loughts L5s.

The Colts were in action on Sunday