Harleston Magpies Ladies returned to Bristol for the second weekend of Indoor Hockey in the Premier League.

Magpies had a tough fixture list in front of them as they had to play three of the top four Indoor sides in the country namely Bowdon Hightown, Reading and Leicester with the fourth match against Clifton.

In the opening match on Saturday Bowdon Hightown started well and were soon 3-0 in front. Magpies made a great fight back to pull the score back to 3-2. Unfortunately in a five minute spell in the second half they allowed Bowdon to pull away to 5-2 and from then on it was a difficult situation. However Magpies pulled another goal back to make it 5-3. The goal scorers were Frances Burrell 2 and Hannah Palmer.

In their second game against Leicester the opposition made it very difficult for Magpies with their press, but at half time the score was 0-0 and Magpies were very much in the game. Magpies were creating chances but they came up against a Leicester goalkeeper who was in tremendous form as she smothered a number of one on one chances. Finally Leicester ran out 3-0 winners late in the second half.

At 9.00am start on Sunday morning Magpies came up against a very strong Reading team, but produced a tremendous performance to nearly snatch a shock result. Reading quickly took the lead with a smart goal but Magpies bounced back with two exceptional goals themselves to take a 2-1 lead. Magpies took the lead again at 3-2 before Reading drew level at 3-3. With seven minutes left the result was hard to call but Reading snatched two late goals to get out of jail. The goal scorers were Sarah Brook 2 and Emma Lee-Smith.

In the final match against Clifton Emma Lee-Smith was unable to play because of injury leaving Magpies with just three forwards. Magpies were 1-0 up at half time after Charlotte Harrison scored following a good run from Sarah Brook. In the end the legs went despite a tremendous effort from Hannah Palmer, Charlotte Harrison and Sarah Brook up front.

So Magpies return to Division 1 having had a great experience playing the top teams in the country and producing some exceptional performances.

Squad: Frances Burrell (capt), Charlotte Harrison, Louisa Greenacre, Lisa Griffin, Katrina Warnes, Lauren Barber, Bryony Lund, Emma Lee-Smith, Sarah Brook and Hannah Palmer.