Aldershot & Farnham (A&F) Hockey Club’s men’s first team fell to a narrow 3-2 defeat at home to Winchester’s second team in South Central Division One South.

A&F started slowly, and it proved costly. From the pushback, Winchester attacked down the right, A&F didn’t apply any pressure to stop a cross coming in from the right and the ball was picked up at the near post by Stuart Swift and lifted into the net.

After five minutes A&F were 2-0 down, two quite fortunate deflections on the way through presented Dan Allen with an easy chance but A&F were far too slow to react and press the Winchester attack.

This left an uphill battle, but A&F did finally spring into life. Charlie Johnson’s firm strike was well saved by the Winchester goalkeeper while Ian Metcalfe missed narrowly wide of each post, firstly with a reverse volley after a lifted ball into the D and then with a short corner deflection.

Charlie Johnson’s effervescent endeavours in the attacking third were causing headaches for the Winchester defence and a cynical foul on him saw the awarding of a penalty stroke. Metcalfe stepped up to tuck it away.

James Huggins was then unlucky not to equalise with a short corner drag which forced an excellent save.

With Winchester attacking down the right again, Max Long conceded a short corner. He was given a green card for dissent, which was then upgraded to yellow for a further display of petulance. The corner was hammered home by Allen.

Sweeper Ed Rushmere did a tremendous job for A&F and enabled plenty of positive play out of defence.

Just before half-time Winchester received two yellow cards, both for dissent, but A&F were unable to take advantage of this numerical advantage either side of the break.

Back to 11-a-side the game settled more, and Winchester did a good job of managing their lead. Midway through the half a move down the right, through Huggins, Metcalfe and Groves saw Charlie Johnson collect the ball on the right side of the circle and play a neat ball across goal to younger brother Harry for a simple tap in.

A&F were not able to create enough as the game wore on, and Winchester didn’t threaten too much either, although Mark Edgley did have to be on his guard and slide with his pads to clear a ball into the D that was inexplicably left by the defence despite a forward lurking to finish.

A&F’s ladies’ second team drew 1-1 at Petersfield. A sloppy first half by the ladies saw them 1-0 down at the break, but a much better performance in the second half and a cracking goal by Emma Whincop earned a point.

A&F’s ladies’ third team lost 5-2 against Meon, despite goals from Olivia Rapley Smith and Emma Skelding. The ladies’ fourth team’s title hopes suffered a setback, losing 5-1 to the Isle of Wight.

Early goals from Andy Chadwick and Rory Cameron were enough for the men’s second team to pick up their first win of the season as they won 2-1 at Southampton University. A very entertaining game saw the men’s third team go down 4-3 at Romsey. The men’s fourth team played out a goalless draw with Gosport Borough.