Marlow's title-winning season finishes on a high with victory over Haslemere

Marlow’s Oliver Blundy.

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It’s been a successful season for Marlow Hockey Club’s various teams, with four of their 14 sides winning their respective leagues.

One of those were the Marlow Men’s first team who had secured their South Central title and promotion a couple of weeks ago, but the Reds were still keen to finish the season on a high against a competent Haslemere side who finished third.

The Reds began well and took the lead from an early penalty corner, Matt Law on hand to pop the ball into the back of the net.

The rest of the half was a good watch but provided no further goals.

Marlow moved into top gear in the second half and a flowing move involving several players resulted in Alex Land scoring with the goalkeeper out of position.

A third goal followed for Oliver Blundy, the youngest member of the team. Then, in the 60th minute Haslemere managed to score a consolation goal and their overall play more than merited it.

Marlow finished the season with a nine-point lead at the top having won 18 of their 22 games. They scored 51 goals and conceded only 22.

It’s been a tough season for Marlow Men’s 2nd team who were involved in an 11-goal thriller on the final day of the season away to Abingdon 1sts.

‘Unfortunately, seven of the 11 goals went to the home side, but the Reds managed to do enough to remain in Premier League 2 next season and they’ll be better for their experiences this season.

Other men’s results saw the third team lose 5-4 to Buckingham 1sts away, the 4ths draw 0-0 with Witney 2nds, the 5ths lose 2-1 to Reading 5ths, the 6ths draw 3-3 with Reading Phoenix 3rds away and the 7ths defeat Yateley 4ths 1-0 away.

Having secured their National League status, the previous weekend with a 3-0 home win over Swansea, Marlow Women’s 1st team travelled to Bath with the pressure off.

Marlow had their chances to take the lead as well, going close through a penalty corner in the first few minutes, but Bath slowly began to take control and only a superb penalty save from Alys Ramm prevented them from taking the lead before the end of the first period.

Marlow came back into the game in the second quarter, but Bath scored twice within five minutes after half-time to take the game away from their visitors.

It’s been a difficult season for Marlow’s Women - who are competing at this level for the first time in their history - however, they should be better equipped to challenge next season should they keep this crop of players together.

Marlow Women’s 2nd team had already won their South Central Division 1 North league and had no game this weekend - their game against Oxford University 2nds having been brought forward. They will be promoted to the Premier Division 2 next season.

In other fixtures, the 3rd team defeated Reading Phoenix 1sts 3-2, the 4ths defeated Amersham and Chalfont 4ths 2-1, the 5ths drew 0-0 with Wycombe 5ths away, the 6ths beat Reading 7ths 4-0 and the 7ths lost 4-1 to Staines 3rds away.