Indoor delight for Marlow's women as men fall just short in regional qualifying

Marlow’s first teams turned their attention to indoor hockey this week, with the men’s and women’s teams attempting to qualify for the national finals in the new year.

With their outdoor England Hockey League in the midst of its winter break, the teams took part in regional qualifying this weekend, with the men failing to recover from a disappointing start.

Adopting a new pre-match routine for the competition - which they will likely consign to the rubbish bin – the men were beaten by Banbury and Havant in their opening pool matches. They responded well with resounding wins over Basingstoke and Amersham, but it was too little too late, and they missed out on the semi-finals by a single point.

The women’s team had no such issues as they cruised through in a six-team round robin competition. Their day began with a 3-0 win over fellow Conference side Oxford Hawks – a win which looked even more impressive as the day wore on. They then battled back from a goal down to beat Winchester 2-1 – the closest they were pushed all day. Trojans were defeated 3-1 and Fareham were put to the sword 3-0 as the Reds moved into pole position with four wins from four.

They played the Army in their final pool match, who were also unbeaten but had an inferior goal difference. Effectively a final, Marlow dominated the game from the outset and opened the scoring through Ruby Balcombe following a neat penalty corner slip move. They would have scored more but for an excellent display of goalkeeping from the Army goalkeeper, who saved two penalty strokes.

The Army netted an equaliser from a rare penalty corner that was comprehensively dispatched into the top corner, but Marlow were the better team throughout and should really have earned qualification with a fifth straight win. Despite the pressure they had to settle for a 1-1 draw, which saw them qualify as South Central champions. They’ll now play in the National League Division 2 competition in the new year.

Marlow’s trump car on the day was the mother and daughter coaching duo of Kate and Lottie Porter. Kate has coached multiple junior teams to indoor success and Lottie – having swapped allegiance from Buckingham to Marlow for outdoor hockey this season – will be returning to her old club for the indoor season to attempt to secure another EHL Premier League title for Buckingham.

As an aside, the Marlow team contained five players who have been to Great Marlow School.