HOCKEY SLIDESHOW: Rugby's Men's 1st XI beat Warwick 5-1

Rugby & East Warwickshire Hockey Club

PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER

Rugby & East Warwickshire Hockey Club Men’s 1st XI 5

Warwick 1

The Men’s 1s beat Warwick 5-1 to get back to winning ways after two weeks without a win. Rugby began the game with lots of intent and it led to Tom Robson scoring a deflection.

Gigsy also found the net with a far post deflection and the pressure continued on the Warwick goal for the remainder of the half.

However things didn’t start off well in the second half, as within 30 seconds of the restart Warwick had won a penalty stroke, CT was able to get a big glove to it, for it only go in off the crossbar.

After five minutes of panicking Rugby regained control of the game for the rest of the half, Szymon Oszyjczyk scoring from a well worked team goal and Richard Hill hitting a well put away goal.

Gigsy added his second with a deflection off another short corner. Man of the Match went to Rich Hill.

Birmingham Uni 7

REWHC Men’s 2nd XI 1

Rugby travelled to Birmingham with 13 players but could have done with 16 all out on the pitch to even try and compete.

After playing the majority of the hockey in our own half, the opposition started to find gaps.

Danny Bell’s performance could not help Birmingham going into half time in the lead, despite KB performing a cracking bit of anti skills to beat the keeper one on one, with the assist from Liam.

After a half time team talk that revolved around having fun and enjoying their hockey, Rugby started to find some chances. The best one was put wide by KB, which should have gone square to Liam.

Unfortunately Birmingham kept finding goals when Rugby pushed men forward. Man of the Match was a three-way tie between Leigh Spacey, Kristian Browne and Chris Harding.

Notts Uni 7

REWHC Men’s 3rd XI 0

Riding the crest of a victory wave, Rugby captain Ken Foster returned to the team and had selected a defensive formation preparing for the onslaught of the students’ attack. Despite a rallying call to arms Tom Webb was picking the ball out of Rugby’s net within five minutes, and although they were 3-0 down after ten, held this score line until half time.

The second half continued with resilient defence from Webby, but Rugby conceded four more goals in the second half, leading to their heaviest defeat of the year.

Man of the match was shared between Webby, Jacob and Jack.

Harborne 4

REWHC Men’s 3rd XI 4

After going 2-0 up in the first ten minutes, Max Scutt scoring both, Rugby proceeded to lose shape and managed to squander a two-goal lead twice, albeit Ryan scored a lovely deflection in between blunders.

At 3-3 in the second half Xander scored from a short with 15 minutes to go, to give Rugby the lead.

Harborne were awarded a penalty flick with just nine seconds left on the clock, meaning Rugby drew a must -win game.

REWHC Men’s 4th XI 2

Loughboro’ Students 2

The Men’s 4s drew with Loughborough Students 2-2.

They started off a bit shakily but quickly eased into the game before taking the lead off a slightly controversial finish from Nick.

The second half had an even worse start, with Rugby conceding two early goals; however, sustained pressure allowed them to get back into the game.

Rugby equalised midway through the half from a tomahawk by Greg Sinnett and probably could have won the game.

Man of the Match went to JC for great defensive work. Either way, a draw with a uni side is probably the best result the team have had all season!

Beeston 7

REWHC 5th XI 0

The 5s suffered a tough 7-0 defeat away to Beeston. Rugby got off to a slow start with lacklustre marking and conceded a quick five goals, finishing the half 5-0 down.

Despite the deficit Craig led the defence for a strong second half, with plenty of pressure for both sides, with Adam assisting George with a beauty of a header whilst on top of the keeper that for some reason didn’t count!

An injury to Tim in the final minutes allowed Beeston to put away another two goals to finish off the game. Man of the Match went to Craig.

REWHC Men’s 6th XI 3

Northampton Saints 0

The mens 6s won back-to-back games for the first time this season, recording their biggest win and first clean sheet.

Rich Allan opened the scoring from a rebound off a shot from Hutch.

Continuing to dominate, Rich picked out a perfect cross to Dave Reay, who smashed it in from a tight angle to double the lead.

Rugby then won two penalty corners, although Gareth’s injections were miscued and went to Paddy, who on the second one, took a shot which was debatably going above the backboard, which was deflected into the path of Gareth who put in the rebound.

After much discussion from the umpires, the goal was allowed to stand which made up for the perfectly good goal Gareth had disallowed last week.

Although Rugby continued to dominate the second half, Saints’ keeper made several saves to keep the score down.

Special mentions go to Rich A, Dave R and Nick H whose recent inclusions in the last two games have been vital to our better form, but Man of the Match went to Ross for another solid performance at right back.

REWHC Ladies 1st XI 3

Telford and Wrekin

Ladies 1st XI 0

Ladies 1s won this top of the league clash. Scorers included Emma Allan and a beautiful one on one with the keeper from Nicki Siarbawa.

REWHC Ladies 3rd XI 5

Olton Ladies 0

Ladies 3s beat Olton 5-0 with a hat-trick from Nadine and one from both Hannah and Laura. It was a tough game due to the cold wind but Rugby played well with great action towards the goal.

Defence was strong and helped Lydia manage to keep the clean sheet.

Club Fixtures Saturday (March 4)

M1 v Warwick Uni - away

M2 v L’borough Students - 1400 - Hart Field

M3 v L’borough Students - away

M4 v Beeston - 1200 - Rugby School

M5 v West Bridgford - 1200 - Rugby School

M6 v L’borough Town - away

M7 v Cov & NW - 1530 - Hart Field

L1 v Harborne - away

L2 v Warwick - 1430 - Bilton High

L3 v Hampton - away