Haslemere Hockey Club’s ladies’ first team fell to a 5-1 defeat at Winchester.

Winchester were second in the table, so Haslemere expected a tough match.

However, Haslemere were exuding confidence after last week’s solid win against Portsmouth and they started well. Less than five minutes into the game, Beanie Bradley hit a ball into the D which Mel Redman deflected at the keeper. The keeper cleared the ball back to Redman, who cracked it into the goal.

Haslemere didn’t retain their 1-0 lead for long. Five minutes later, Winchester won a penalty corner from which they scored with an unfortunate deflection off a Haslemere stick, sending the ball flying high into the corner of the net to make it 1-1.

Shortly after that, a collision in the attacking D saw Bradley leave the pitch after sustaining a bash to the head.

Six minutes into the second half, Winchester turned the ball over in the Haslemere half and capitalised on this by scoring a skilful goal.

A further Winchester goal came nine minutes later after another turnover coming out of defence, making it 3-1.

Winchester piled on the attacks, winning a succession of short corners and scoring two more well-worked goals from open play to win 5-1.