City of Peterborough Hockey Club clinch East title with plenty to spare

​It’s been a tremendous bounce back from the boys at Bretton Gate who were relegated from the National League at the end of last season.

They will now return to the top table, at Conference League level which is two divisions below the elite Premier Division.

City have been dominant all season in regional hockey. They have won 17 and lost one of 18 East fixtures. The title-clinching 3-1 success at Blueharts was a 13th win in a row.

City fell behind at Blueharts, but skipper Matt Porter equalised before Gareth Andrew claimed his 29th goal of the campaign. Porter then added his second goal, although City didn’t expect the celebrations to begin straight away.

Only when news arrived that nearest challengers Saffron Walden had surprisingly dropped points to lowly Old Southendians were glasses raised.

City are currently 13 points clear at the top and host Dereham at Bretton Gate this Saturday (4pm).

The other City wins for men’s teams arrived from the fourths who crushed Ely 9-1 with Matt Carson-Doughty and Gary Hales both hitting hat-tricks. Andy Cave, Josh Morley and Oliver Drake also scored.

Simon Buckley was another hat-trick hero as the fifths beat Cambs South 3-2 and Phil Martin also bagged a treble for the sixths in a 4-0 win over Pelicans. Dan Collis also scored in that game.

Ross Ambler was on target for the seconds in a 1-1 draw with Norwich City and Julian Catto grabbed the goal as the thirds drew 1-1 with Cambs South.

Harry Dodds scored for the sevenths in a 2-1 defeat to Cambs South and Harry Dodds netted in a 2-1 loss for the eighths to Newmarket.

LADIES

City of Peterborough 1sts will pull out of the bottom two in the East Premier Division with a win over fellow strugglers Norwich Dragons at Bretton Gate on Saturday (1pm).

City went down 2-1 at St Albans seconds last weekend despite leading at the break through a Laura Packenham short corner strike.

The seconds and thirds lost 1-0 and 3-0 to Cambs South and Spalding respectively, but there were wins for the fourths and fifths.

It finished 5-1 for the fourths against Cambs South with goals from Miriam Wood (2). Lucie Buckley, Lisa Andrew and Sara Teesdale. Matilda Ferguson scored the only goal of the game for the fifths against Pelicans.

JUNIORS

The City Under 14 boys and girls teams were involved in triangular competitions.

The girls fared better as they followed a 5-0 win over Upminster with a 0-0 draw with Chelmsford.

Emily Kinnear, Lydia Johnson, Florence Wilding, Isla Lennard and Annabelle Robinson scored against Upminster.

The boys lost 2-0 to both Chelmsford and Saffron Walden.