2023/24 Season - Week 22

Photo Credit: Gregory Owain

It’s now 11 and counting for Blueharts Men’s 1s who extended their unbeaten run with a battling 3-3 draw against Cambridge University.

Ben Apperly gave the Hitchin side the lead only for Cambridge to level just before half-time after some sloppy defending.

Man-of-the-match Jack Floor then scored a brilliant second to restore the Blues lead – only for them to be staring defeat when two Cambridge goals gave them a 3-2 lead heading into the final moments.

However, Apperly saved the day with a drag flick, enabling Blueharts to grab a point and move up to second in the East Premier Division on goal difference ahead of Letchworth.

The Men’s 2s are all but guaranteed the Division 2 South West title after their 7-0 win over Hertford at Hitchin Boys School.

Richard Middleditch’s hat-trick was the centrepiece of the win with Adam Wells, Kyle Watson, Ben Philipson and James Morries also on the scoresheet.

The Ladies 1s were just on the wrong side of a seven-goal thriller against top three side Harleston Magpies.

The Blues went ahead three times through two goals from Isla Campbell and one from Helen Clarke but were pegged back by the Magpies who grabbed a fourth and ultimately winning goal in the second half.

The 1s have two games left to play – and two wins could see them finish in the top six in the East Premier Division.

Despite an excellent performance from player-of-the-match and goalkeeper Sam Coughlan-Flood, goal-line clearances from Antonia Altham and penalty spot interceptions from Emma Saddler, the Ladies 2s were beaten 3-0 to league leaders Saffron Walden.

But there were no such problems for the Ladies 3s who consolidated second spot in East Division 3 South West with a thumping 6-0 win against St Albans.

The 3s ran through their repertoire of team moves for all six goals with Emily Bryan finishing off some slick execution at a short corner for the first.

A flowing move ended with Alice Saunders feeding Jo Floor for the second after 19 minutes, while more quick movement was rounded off by Josie Layton to make it 3-0.

The 3s’ attacking press enabled Kiki Arellano to finish off another Saunders assist for the fourth a few minutes later and Lizzie Bayley was on hand to put the finishing touch to another dazzling move to make it 5-0 before half-time.

St Albans did offer some resistance after the break, but Layton added a sixth to put the gloss on an excellent day’s work with Niccara Berry taking the player-of-the-match honours for her display at right back.

The Men’s 4s need just a point to clinch third place in Division 3 South West after two goals from Harry Storey gave them a 2-1 win over Bedford.

The win was also ground out thanks to some excellent defending from Nick Buckland, Will Efford, Henry Ripper and Paul Graves.

The 3s could still catch the 4s in the table – but need results to go their way after being held to a 2-2 draw in a fiery game against Potters Bar.

The 3s were shown two green cards and a yellow but did at least grab a point from 2-1 down through a late Darren Mackintosh equaliser after Harry Macdonald had opened the scoring for the Blues.

Playing with ten men for much of the second half told however – they were also left frustrated by failing to convert more of their eight short corners during the game.

A goal on her debut for Grace Deller proved just a consolation for the Ladies 4s who went down 4-2 to Saffron Walden, Alice Winton scoring their other goal, with another 4s debutant Emilia Saul tying with Deller for player-of the-match.

The Ladies 5s were also out of luck as they were beaten 2-0 by St Albans despite a player-of-the-match performance from Martha Bradford.

An incident-packed game at Shefford and Sandy saw the Men’s 5s come back from 2-0 down to beat the home side 5-3.

Blueharts recovered from a poor start thanks to a re-jig of formation and greater movement from their forwards. Chances started to appear with Ashley Hammond converting one of them to halve the deficit.

The 5s were awarded a penalty corner on the stroke of half-time with George Gregory slamming in a rebound for the equaliser.

Two quick goals from Joel Davey put the Blues ahead in the second period and the frustration of going behind started to tell on the home side who were shown a flurry of yellow cards.

Blueharts’ numerical advantage told as Rory Williams got into double figures for the season with a neat waist high deflection to make it 5-2.

Shefford and Sandy pulled one back but the 5s saw the game out comfortably enough.

The Men’s 7s came up just short against their Shefford and Sandy opponents, going down 3-1 despite a goal from Bobby Bridges and an assist from man-of-the-match Harri Flinn.

There was an excellent win for the Ladies 7s who beat Chiltern 5-0, however the Men’s 6s lost 3-2 at home to Hertford.