Harleston Magpies Men 10, Sevenoaks 0

HOCKEY: Harleston hit the goal trail against Sevenoaks after a disappointing result away at Bromley & Beckenham the previous week.

Tristan Baynes opened the scoring only four minutes in, as the ball was worked to him with space in the Sevenoaks D. Baynes then calmly slotted past the flailing Sevenoaks goalkeeper.

On eight minutes Baynes doubled his tally, following a penalty corner.

Harleston continued to move the ball well, as their confidence was now boosted. Sevenoaks had their own periods of possession but could not penetrate the Harleston D, due to good defending from the home side. Harleston continued to look dangerous in attack, winning a number of penalty corners throughout the first half. With only 10 minutes of the first half remaining, Magpies extended their lead as Gareth Furlong scored from a penalty corner. This made it 3-0 to the home side as they went into the break.

The second period started brightly with both sides knowing the next goal was all-important in the game. Sevenoaks pushed up, throwing men forward. Harleston's defence stood firm, with an outstanding performance from man-of-the-match, Richard Gill, assisted well by Mark Wheelhouse and David Ling, meaning that Richard Harms was rarely troubled all afternoon.

The next goal came in the shape of Ben Wright, who rounded two defenders before slotting the ball past the advancing keeper, making it 4-0 to the home side. In the 40th minute Gareth Furlong made it 5-0 with his second penalty corner of the game.

On 47 minutes, Andrew Hipwell broke clear through, only to be thwarted by the Sevenoaks keeper, but Simon Hipwell was fastest to react, striking the ball home with a reverse-stick shot.

Baynes made it 7-0, producing a blockbusting reverse-stick shot which rifled the ball high into the Sevenoaks goal, and sealing his hat-trick in style. On 54 minutes the tireless Toby Tibenham broke clear and rounded the keeper to make it 8-0. Ben Wright then got his second of the game, firing home Harleston's ninth goal.

Andrew Hipwell then got in on the act, making it 10-0, when a well-worked goal started from deep in Magpies' own half resulted in Hipwell stroking the ball past the diving Sevenoaks keeper.

This was an outstanding performance from Harleston, but despite the score-line Sevenoaks did make Harleston work hard for every goal.

Harleston Magpies Ladies 1, Sevenoaks 2

Harleston Ladies narrowly missed out on picking up a point in their tough away fixture to top-four side Sevenoaks. The first half of the match was end to end with both sides breaking quickly from midfield and having numerous chances.

Emma Lee-Smith's pace and skill caused the Sevenoaks defence problems throughout and was inches away from scoring on several occasions.

Emily Wilford and Verity Blyth up front were quick to close the Sevenoaks defence down and were almost rewarded half way through the first half when Wilford's shot from a narrow angle almost went in.

Sevenoaks however, always looked dangerous on the break and were rewarded with their first goal seven minutes before half-time after they took a quick free-hit from just outside the circle.

Sevenoaks came out after half-time and hit Magpies hard, going 2-0 up in the first couple of minutes through a short-corner conversion.

Magpies had to absorb considerable pressure from the Sevenoaks forwards and had to pull out some important tackles and good saves from Charlotte Lee-Smith in goal.

Magpies began to fight back and produced some excellent passages of play. Lee-Smith was rewarded with a well deserved goal after she converted a short corner with clinical precision into the bottom left corner of the goal.

Magpies kept pushing but the visitors defended well and denied Magpies a well deserved point.