Harleston Magpies men's team gained promotion to the Indoor National League Premier Division after two successful weekends.Promotion is a fantastic achievement for the club and the success can be put down to the outstanding ability and commitment of the 13-man squad, managed by Martin Fields.

Harleston Magpies men's team gained promotion to the Indoor National League Premier Division after two successful weekends.

Promotion is a fantastic achievement for the club and the success can be put down to the outstanding ability and commitment of the 13-man squad, managed by Martin Fields.

Promotion was achieved on the same day that the Magpies U18 boys team won the East Indoor Championships in Bedford. The result takes the U18s to the national finals later this month.

The men's first team finished runners-up to Havant in Division One, having won six out of their eight games. Promotion places the side in an elite division amongst the top nine teams in the country.

It was Magpies' first season in Division One after gaining promotion last year.

The team went into the tournament looking to secure their league position for the following season. This was virtually achieved in the first weekend following two wins out of four.

Having suffered two defeats, it only left an outside chance of promotion. However a stunning set of results, winning all four matches saw Magpies snatch the second promotion spot.

Harleston started well with an 8-2 defeat of Barford Tigers. They then demolished Guildford 11-3 with both Andy Hipwell and Matt Riches scoring hat-tricks.

Magpies continued to go from strength to strength and on Sunday defeated Sheffield UB 10-1, Andy Hipwell again in the goals with a hat-trick.

The three wins set up a final showdown match with champions Havant. Magpies had to win to gain promotion, anything less resulting in third place. They went 3-0 up within the first 12 minutes. Havant started to come back into the game and pulled one back.

The match entered a key phase when Harleston had a man sin-binned. During this phase, the five-man Harleston team withstood constant pressure.

Once restored to full strength the team regained their three-goal advantage. Havant pulled one more back but resolute defending prevented further goals.

Magpies Men's first team are sponsored by Silverfx.