Five-star Durham and an eight-goal Loughborough thriller: England Women’s Premier Division results
Nineteen goals in the five Women’s Premier Division games whose results England Hockey had published by Saturday evening, and the pattern of this season held: the student sides are ruthless, the margins are wild, and nobody’s defence is safe. The day’s headline fixture, Surbiton v East Grinstead under the lights, hadn’t appeared on the official system when this was checked, so that one follows when England Hockey publishes it.
Durham University 5-0 Buckingham
Buckingham’s fortnight from hell, part two. A week after conceding eleven at Surbiton, they went to Durham and conceded five more without scoring.
Durham were 3-0 up inside ten minutes. Katie Birch scored in the 1st minute, Emmie Gilbert converted a corner in the 6th, Helena Youmans another in the 9th, and the game was done before Buckingham had settled. Lorna Crawford added a fourth corner in the 37th and Ava Wadsworth finished the scoring in the 63rd.
Four of Durham’s five goals came from penalty corners. That’s not a bad day, that’s a set-piece machine, and it keeps Durham right in the top-group fight. Buckingham, pointless and shipping goals, need the next home game to be a reset, fast.
Loughborough Students 5-3 Hampstead & Westminster
The game of the day, and it wasn’t close either. Eight goals, two comebacks, and a finish Loughborough just about deserved.
Olivia Breed and Hannah Boss scored a minute apart, 15th and 16th, to put Loughborough 2-0 up. Esme Burge pulled one back from a corner, Amy Cradden restored the gap, Tyler Lench scored for H&W, and when Joanna Leigh made it 3-3 in the 53rd, Hampstead & Westminster had hauled themselves all the way back.
They still lost. Lucy Mackey’s corner in the 58th and Mia Moore’s in the 69th, both penalty corners, won it for Loughborough. H&W have now lost two in a row, and this one will sting more than most: you don’t come back from 3-1 and 3-3 away from home and leave with nothing unless the last ten minutes go badly wrong.
The rest of Saturday
Bowdon 2-3 Wimbledon. Another comeback, this one completed. Flora Fletcher put Wimbledon ahead from a corner in the 23rd, Margot Willis and Annabel Mills turned it round for Bowdon by the 39th, and then Wimbledon took it back: Becky Manton in the 41st, Hannah Martin’s corner in the 47th. Wimbledon stay in touch with the top group; Bowdon led a good side at home and lost, which is becoming a habit they need to break.
Reading 3-2 University of Birmingham. Madeleine Goodman scored in the 1st minute for Reading, Isabelle Smith levelled in the 22nd, and the game stayed alive until Georgia Howe won it for Reading in the 65th, four minutes before Caitlin Witham’s late corner made the last moments nervous at 3-2. Birmingham came into the day near the top. They leave Sonning Lane with nothing.
University of Nottingham 0-0 Teddington. The day’s odd one out. No goals at all, just two cards on the official match page. After nineteen goals elsewhere, Nottingham served up a stalemate, and Teddington will happily take the away point.
Still to come: Surbiton v East Grinstead
The 17:00 game at Sugden Road, top against the side that pushed them hardest last weekend, wasn’t on England Hockey’s official system at the final Saturday-evening check (the match page showed no score). We’ll add the result and scorers here as soon as it’s published rather than guess at the day’s biggest game.
