It was a rest week for several of Bedford Hockey Club’s senior squads and for the junior age-group teams, although the Women’s Masters Over 35s and Over 55s saw action in the next rounds of their England Hockey Championships.
The Men’s 1st XI, sitting third in the Premier Division, held second placed Saffron Walden to a 1-1 draw after their trip to Essex. This coming Saturday they travel away again, heading to Old Southendian who are down in tenth spot.
After a week off, the Ladies’ 1st XI will be back in action next weekend over in Oxford when they face Oxford Hawks. The Hawks are just three points ahead of Bedford, so a Bedford win would really boost spirits after a challenging season so far.
The Men’s 2nd XI continued their successful run, taking a 5-0 victory over Letchworth.
The score line would have gone some way to closing the goal difference between Bedford and top place Luton Town had it not been for Luton winning their fixture 6-0.
After several prosperous weeks for the Ladies’ 2nd XI, they failed to make an impact on Chelmsford; a solitary goal from Andrea Mason insufficient to match the three from the visiting opposition.
Bedford – now in fifth place – will hope to return to a point-winning performance this Saturday when they host eleventh place Sudbury.
It was a local derby for the Men’s 3rd XI against Shefford & Sandy.
An evenly matched game played out, the score line remaining 0-0, until a Bedford goal by Josh Dixon 45 minutes into the match.
The lead didn’t last for long; the opposition levelling the scores at 50 minutes and going on to take the victory with their second goal ten minutes later.
There was a Sunday fixture for the Ladies’ 3rd XI, still playing catch-up from cold weather postponements.
The team travelled to top of the table Broxbourne, but 6th place Bedford failed to break their opponents, returning home following a 4-1 defeat.
The Men’s 4th XI, 10th in the league, were stung with a 7-3 loss after 2nd placed Hertford 2nd’s travelled to Bedford.
The Ladies’ 4th XI were 2-0 up over Luton Town by the half-time whistle, and although Luton pulled a goal back from a penalty corner early in the second half, Bedford bagged two further goals to secure the win.
The victory keeps Bedford comfortably in pole position with Luton in second. Third placed Hertford will be travelling to Chester Road on Saturday to face the Bedford squad.
Hertford’s 5th XI opened the scoring just 3 minutes into their match with Bedford’s Men’s 5th XI, followed by two more before the half-time whistle.
Whilst Bedford found the net in the second half of the match, so did Hertford, taking the final score to 4-1.
The trip to West Herts for the Ladies’ 5th XI saw them return very happy after a 5-2 victory, which sees Bedford rise to third in the division. They travel away again next weekend, heading to top of the table Saffron Walden, Bedford just two points behind the top two teams.
The Men’s 6th XI only had to travel down the road for their fixture against Shefford & Sandy’s 4th XI who are sitting at the bottom of the table.
Bedford’s 6-0 victory see them rise to second, but their fixture list takes them a little further afield this weekend when they head to Bishop’s Stortford.
It seems to have been a particularly successful weekend for Hertford’s Men’s teams, Bedford’s Men’s 7th XI suffered a 5-0 loss to Hertford’s 6th XI thanks to a very impressive display from the youngsters in the Hertford squad.
There was disappointment for both the club’s Masters teams who were in action; the Women’s Over 35s and Over 55s.
The Over 35s travelled to Sutton Coldfield for their fixture.
Sutton Coldfield opened the scoring with a goal just 6 minutes into the match. It wasn’t until the 66th minute that Bedford equalised.
Being a knock-out competition, any match finishing in a draw goes on to a penalty shoot-out, five team members stepping up to take the flicks. Following that, when the scores remained level, it came down to sudden death with Sutton Coldfield taking the win 6-5.
The Over 55s had a long trek to play their Canterbury opponents, a game which reached full time with the score at 3-3 and so, like their younger club mates, the match went to a shoot-out with Canterbury triumphing 5-4.
Next weekend, it will be over to the Men’s and Women’s Over 45s, the men hosting Khalsa at Chester Road and the women heading to Rugby, to face up to Rugby and East Warwickshire.
Words by Jean Fitch
