Sudbury Hockey Club Ladies' IIs hit double figures at Haverhill

After narrowly missing out on promotion last term Sudbury Ladies II put down an emphatic early marker to their East Hockey Women’s League season with a 10-0 victory at Haverhill II on Saturday.

In what was the seconds’ first game of the campaign in Division 4NW(S) visiting Sudbury had to soak up early Haverhill pressure.

Once the first goal hit the backboard Sudbury settled and controlled the game.

With some brilliant runs up the wings from players Abi Treagust, Annabel Gardiner and Lucy Gibson the visiting side went into the interval with a 5-0 lead.

Sudbury’s defensive line were impenetrable and kept play moving forward after the restart, managing to mirror the first period with another five unanswered goals.

l Sudbury Ladies first team drew 1-1 at home to local rivals Ipswich II, who were also promoted into Division 1N this season.

The hosts started strongly with some great attacking play down the flanks. Making some excellent linking passes up the pitch, giving them numerous attacks on goal, Jess Jacobs took advantage by scoring mid-way through the first half.

In the second half Sudbury allowed Ipswich to take more control of the game and although they soaked up plenty of pressure, eventually Ipswich found a way through and levelled.

l Sudbury Men’s I built upon an impressive first win in Division 1 with a 5-2 success at Cambridge City III.

It was the hosts who started the better of the two teams, drawing a very good save from Chris Smith.

Despite this early pressure, it was Sudbury who opened the scoring when man-of-the-match Alex Hunnable found the net with the aid of a cute deflection.

With their noses in front, Sudbury started taking the game to Cambridge and soon found themselves 2-0 up after Dan Birch found himself in acres of space at the back post and showed great composure to slot in.

The second half started the same as the first, but this time Cambridge pressure was rewarded with a goal.

This goal very early in the second half could have rattled Sudbury, but they responded perfectly with lovely team goal finished by Hunnable.

As the momentum shifted in favour of Sudbury, tempers started to rise and ended with Brendon Mayers, who had another impressive game, harshly sin-binned.

After holding out with 10 men, they were pegged back slightly when a deft deflection trickled past Smith and found the bottom corner.

Any hopes of a Cambridge fightback were snuffed out when Chrystal found space at the top of the D, rounded the keeper and fired his shot in the corner.

Chrystal then went on to double his goal tally with a ‘swan dive tap in’ after another slick Sudbury move.

The firsts host Broxbourne on Saturday (2pm) in what promises to be an enthralling encounter as they look to maintain their excellent start to the season.

l Sudbury Men’s III bounced back from an opening weekend defeat in Division 5NE with a 3-1 victory at Cromer against North Norfolk II.

After some end-to-end hockey and some great saves from Kenny Moulton-Day, Sudbury upped their game with new addition James Poulson finishing a great passing move.

After the interval it was not long before they doubled their advantage through another new player, Maxi Webster-Cole.

After an unfortunate red card, Sudbury found themselves down to 10 for the remaining 20 minutes.

Poulson, who enjoyed a positive debut alongside fellow town cricketer Dustin Melton, grabbed his second before the Norfolk side nicked a consolation.

Sudbury face Harleston Magpies V at Cornard (3.30pm) this weekend.

l Sudbury Men’s IVs beat Bury St Edmunds VI 3-0 to record their first victory in Division 6NE(S), following last weekend’s hard-earned draw.

The fours had a new look team with only six of the starters from the week previous.

Sudbury’s juniors grew well into the game, taking control and eventually breaking the stalemate when James Preedy took the ball on a 40-metre journey before slotting home from close range.

Greg King slotted home in the second half to double their lead and a third goal followed on the counter-attack from Sam Hoyle.