Bridgwater Ladies I 6, Taunton Vale III 0

AFTER a two-week break, Bridgwater returned to league hockey with a resounding victory over local rivals Taunton Vale.

Their opening goal came from a Charlie Lewis sweep from outside the D which was deflected into the goal by a Vale player.

Bridgwater’s second before half time began with a cross from Hayley Greenwell and finished by Kira Gardner.

The second half saw Bridgwater increase their domination on the game.

A right-sided drive from Laura Coles picked out Lorraine Hollidge who put away the third goal. The next goal from a Hayley Greenwell short corner strike was finished by Donna Cooper on the line.

A fifth quickly followed, from a skilful dribble by Heidi Martin and finished by Kira Gardner.

The final goal for Bridgwater started with a left side Sheila Burridge pass to Charlie Lewis whose ball into the D found Lorraine Hollidge for her second.

Deserved player of the match Millie Burridge linked well in attack with Jo Bromme.

Bridgwater Ladies II 2, Shepton Mallet 8

BRIDGWATER Ladies II crashed to defeat at the hands of Shepton Mallet.

Bridgwater repelled early pressure and with great work from Paige Martin and Emma Hill forced several consecutive corners.

Shepton scored from a penalty corner after indiscipline from Bridgwater and this seemed to open the floodgates.

Bridgwater didn’t give up and some classic play forced another corner for Bridgwater which Sue Chaplin converted with a lift from the goalkeepers rebound.

Despite great battling, the half-time score was 6-1 to Shepton.

Two second half goals completed the Shepton scoring, while Megan Weston scored a second for Bridgwater.

Player of the match was captain Julie Morrish.

Bridgwater Men III 3, Okehampton II 2

RICH Payne scored a late winner for Bridgwater as they nicked a win at home to Okehampton.

Okehampton dominated the early exchanges and took the lead from a short corner, but Bridgwater regrouped with good runs from both wingers Sean Hedeaux and Sam Uminski.

Bridgwater started to push their opponents back and Ben Lewis made a strong run into the D and the ball found its way back to Rich Payne whose hard shot hit the back of the net to level the scores.

It was Okehampton who struck next but Bridgwater again reacted well and were rewarded when a good ball from Max Syvret fell to Steve Turvey whose hard accurate shot beat the keeper to level the scores again.

The second half was a battle of attrition with both teams seeing chances go begging. Sam Uminski was making good runs down the left and this led to what proved to be the winning goal.

Uminski ran down the left, cut inside and found Sean Hedeaux who fed Rich Payne whose reverse shot hit the top corner of the goal for what was the deciding goal.

Chard III 1, Bridgwater Men IV 2

A WIN at Chard for Bridgwater's fourth team was overshadowed by a number of both on- and off-the-field incidents, taking the gloss off what was an important result in this SE District 3 match.

It was Chard who broke the deadlock, scoring from a short corner.

Ill-discipline cost Bridgwater as they were once again reduced to ten, with Mike Davidge receiving a yellow card for complaining at not receiving a free hit having been bundled to the ground.

Steve Wilson returned for Davidge for the final ten minutes and Bridgwater were finally able to find a formation that troubled Chard and it was Wilson’s through ball that allowed Sam Beasley to race through to level the scores.

Within five minutes, Beasley put Bridgwater ahead as he converted Batten’s and they were able to see out the final few minutes.

Bridgwater Men V 0, ECV Hornets IV 5

BRIDGWATER were beaten by a strong ECV side on Saturday.

Despite Steve Morrish, Geoff Banham, Kev Hicks, Kettlewell, Simon Brewer, Liam Durkin and Mike Date all staying strong in defence, it was always going to be hard to keep ECVH out.

ECVH did finally strike through a short corner which was nearly saved on the line and followed up their second from a penalty stroke.

After this, Bridgwater did finally get an attack with both John Dee and Marcus Blyth coming close but not quite connecting.

Blyth did appear to score a goal from a short corner but it was disallowed due to it being ruled too high.

Bridgwater started to get possession through to the forwards, and this resulted in a few shots on the ECVH goal, but not enough possession was converted.

Bridgwater were open at the back and ECVH punished this by scoring three more goals.