MINEHEAD & West Somerset Hockey Club Minehead men’s first team faced Sidmouth and Ottery away on Saturday. Minehead looked settled from the start, seeing plenty of possession and causing a few early threats to goal, though nothing materialised.

After 15 minutes Sidmouth and Ottery found their pace and began bringing the fight to Minehead with a mixed-age attack. A fairly scrappy first half followed until a moment of individual brilliance from Joe Notaro-Livingstone - running three quarters of the pitch on a counter attack, found Josh Hooper waiting in the D, who put Minehead one up.

Club alumnus-turned-Ottery-local Nick Hill offered some advice, suggesting that Minehead try and stretch the field by leaving a man high. Implementing this moving into the second half, the play instantly opened up, and Minehead began creating opportunities and winning short corners.

One of these saw them double their lead, with Shane Heale pouncing on a slightly hastily worked routine and finding the back board. At this point, Minehead had the bit between their teeth, and many dangerous looking balls headed towards goal, however any further scores refused to materialise.

Sidmouth and Ottery continued to fight hard until the final whistle, end result 2-0 to the away team.

Minehead enter a two-week break with a few takeaways to work on before their stiffest challenge of the season so far, home to local rivals Bridgwater on November 8th. Player(s) of the match:Joe Notaro-Livingstone and James White.

Minehead Ladies put in a strong performance in a close match against Sidmouth & Ottery 2s. Despite a strong start from S&O with two quick goals in the first ten minutes, Minehead brought it back with a well-executed short corner at 15 minutes, which Gemma converted, making it 2-1. At 18 minutes, Zoey then levelled the score to 2-2.

In the second half, Sidmouth regained the lead with two more goals by the 17-minute mark. Minehead responded with a goal with Zoey slipping the ball to Morgan, who scored bringing it to 4-3. Morgan struck again shortly after to bring the game level at 4-4.

After a delay due to S&O’s goalkeeper leaving the pitch and a switch to 11 outfield players, Minehead continued to play with determination, but despite best efforts a short-corner was awarded to S&O in the final minute and the opposition came away with a5-4 win. Player of the Match: Jointly awarded to Amy and Morgan!

The Men’s 3’s hosted Bridgwater 4’s in the late fixture of the day and made hard work of a dominant performance in all areas of the field with the whole 14-man squad playing some spells of good hockey. In spite of the one-way traffic it took most of the first half to convert pressure to a lead after several short corner opportunities were wasted, but following a goal-line foot by a Bridgwater defender Luke Orpin stepped up to convert the penalty flick.

Yet more second half pressuretook a long time to turn into a comfortable lead, but Ben Moody finally tucked one in after a substitution saw him playing an attacking role for a change. Man of the match Will Giles put in an unsung hero role all day; solid in defence and a constant thwart to the Bridgwater midfield attacks and secure a 2-0 win.