It was a successful weekend for Old Loughts with the men’s and ladies 1s both winning important matches and the u18 boys winning their England Hockey cup semi final. After their win away at Cambridge Uni last week, the ladies faced both St Albans and Upminster away whilst the men played Canterbury at home. The u18 boys played Winchester in the semi final of the England Hockey cup.

Men’s and Youth sections report

Old Loughtonians M1s 5 – 2 Canterbury M1s

On Sunday Old Loughtonians M1s faced longstanding National league rivals Canterbury with both teams needing a win to stay in contention for promotion. Loughts started strongly and had two good early chances well saved by Chis Rea in the Canterbury goal. At the back, Rob Bloss, Ed Fleet and George Lilley defended well and distributed accurately to Mark Loughrey and to Max Heaver who pounced on the ball at every opportunity and made a number of decisive darting runs forward. It remained 0-0 until 6 minutes into the second half when Harvey Edwards opened the scoring and leapt into the air in delight. The lead only lasted 4 minutes as Alec Sasmussen levelled for Canterbury. Mark Loughrey made it 2-1 shortly afterwards after sustained Loughts pressure. In the final quarter Loughts finally capitalised on their chances. First Harvey Edwards tapped in his second after a skilful run and deft pass from Euan Gilmour. Will Godfrey then drilled in from a short corner and James Thomas completed the scoring after a dinking run and neat link ups with Andy MacGregor and Tom Watson. Jack Valentine scored a minute later for Canterbury but Loughts held on for a well deserved victory. Next week they travel to league leaders Southgate who narrowly beat bottom club Oxford Hawks 4-3.

The M2s, 3s and 7s all played Chelmsford with the 2s drawing 0-0 against Chelmsford 1s away at Beehive Lane, the M3s losing 0-1 at home to Chelmsford 2s and the M7s losing 1-4 away against Chelmsford 6s. The M4s also lost 1-4 to Redbridge & Ilford 1s, the Willows M5s drew 1-1 with Havering 3s and the Willows Woodsmen M6s beat Braintree 4s 6-1. Club captain Simon Beckley scored after just 5 minutes for the Willows Axemen M8s against league leaders Tower Hamlets 2s but they eventually lost 1-5. Age told as the Supervets lost 1-9 to Reading’s young over 50s.

On Sunday, the boys u18s played Winchester in the semi final of the England Hockey cup. Jack Moffat scored two early goals for Loughts who were 3-0 up by half time after Oliver Hart scored the third. Ethan Parr added a fourth shortly after half time and Jack Moffat completed his hattrick before Winchester scored a consolation goal to make it 5-1. Loughts will play the winner of Repton and Surbiton in the final.

The u10 boys and girls both competed in the Essex In2Hockey championships and both qualified for the East Area round after both finishing as runners up.

Women’s section report
LOUGHTS GO MARCHING ON AGAINST THE SAINTS
St Albans W2s 0 -1 Old Loughtonians W1s

Old Loughtonians Women’s 1s chalked up their fifth win in a row to remain top of the East Area Premier Division with a narrow 1-0 victory away at St Albans Women’s 2s on Saturday in the first of two weekend matches . Loughts were not at their fluent best in the first half and needed player of the match Annie Wade-Jones in the Loughts goal to be on top form with a number of critical stops.
Coach Miranda Baldwin pressed the reset button at the break and within 30 seconds of the restart India Blake passed to Adele Sammons who drove into the D and fired into the bottom corner to give Loughts the lead. Both sides failed to convert a number of penalty corner opportunities during the second period. Em Davies went closest to extending the lead with her fierce drive being well saved by the St Albans keeper.
As the clock ran down Old Loughts held firm as the partisan home crowd roared on The Saints but to no avail as Loughts defended stoically to collect the spoils.
It was a frustrating day for the middle order teams. The L2s lost 0-1 at home to Hertford 1s, the L3s lost 1-2 away to Brentwood 3s and the L4s lost 1-4 to Southend 2s. The L5s had a convincing 7-0 win against Witham 3s with two goals from Olivia Collins and 1 each from Amanda Goddard, Esha Narwal, Anna Ross-Bell and Purvi Thompson.

FOUR-MIDABLE LOUGHTS MAKE IT SIX ON THE BOUNCE
Upminster W1s 0 Old Loughtonians W1s 4
Old Loughtonians Women’s 1s maintained their challenge for promotion to the National League with their second away win of the weekend beating Upminster 4-0 on Sunday. A fast start put Upminster on the back foot and after only 6 minutes Em Davies put theory into practice by expertly drag flicking the ball into the bottom corner. Loughts were on fine form and should have had more to show for their dominance before they put the game to bed in the final 15 minutes.
First the Emilys’ combined from a penalty corner as Davies fed Holmes who rounded the keeper before slotting home. Tash Patient then capped an outstanding display with another marauding run into the Upminster D before pulling the ball back for India Blake to apply the finishing touch. Chloe Menear completed the scoring to make it 4-0 with a thunderous strike from another penalty corner with 2 minutes remaining.
Loughts now have a pivotal weekend ahead of them with a trip to Bury St Edmunds on Saturday and a potential title decider at home to Cambridge University on Sunday afternoon.