Cambridge City Hockey Club’s first team remain in England Hockey Women’s Conference Midlands title contention after comeback win over Belper

After the previous weekend’s disappointment, Cambridge City bounced back with a 4-1 win over Belper in the England Hockey Women’s Conference Midlands on Saturday.

It appeared that City’s defeat on the road at Oxford had ended their title hopes given that a four-point gap between themselves and league-leading Repton had opened up.

However, a combination of City’s triumph at the expense of Belper and Repton being held to a 1-1 draw by Bedford has seen the deficit cut to a couple of points with two matches remaining. St Albans, meanwhile, are sandwiched between the two sides and are a point adrift of the summit.

City left it late against Belper, who took a one-goal advantage with them into the break. They remained in the ascendancy until the final quarter when Evie Younger fired in an eight-minute hat-trick to swing the game in favour of the hosts before Jess Tuff added some further gloss to the scoreline.

City will aim to keep up the pressure in the race for top spot when they host Beeston on Saturday (16 March).

On the same day, Cambridge City II and III will lock horns in the East Women’s League Premier Division.

The two teams go into the inter-club contest on the back of having dropped points last weekend. City II drew 1-1 at home with Broxbourne while City III lost 1-0 at City of Peterborough.

Cambridge City IV have gone top of the East Women’s League Division 2 North West standings after racking up back-to-back victories.

In midweek City got the better of Spalding 2-1 courtesy of goals from Holly Sheahan and Anna Carter, both of which came after the visitors had taken an early lead.

And that was followed on Saturday by a 7-2 win on the road at City of Peterborough III.​​​​ City, who hold a two-point advantage at the summit, shared the goals around as Abbey Cotton, Holly Radcliffe, Katie Maude-Barker, Becky Hayward, Anna Carter, Amber Smith and Madi Yeoman all found the back of the net.

After being held to draws in their two most recent outings, second-placed Cambridge City VI returned to winning ways in the East Women’s League Division 4 North West. Captain Emily Hill and Faith Leader were the goalscorers in a 2-0 victory away at Haverhill.

Already-relegated Cambridge City were always going to be up against it during their trip to Bowdon in the England Hockey Men’s Division 1 North. And so it proved as the hosts claimed the three points that they needed to be crowned champions thanks to a thumping 6-0 victory.

Cambridge City II are also in danger of going down in the East Men’s League Premier Division after their 6-3 loss at Old Southendians. Amo Flora (2) and Lenny Dalrymple scored what turned out to be consolation goals.

Elsewhere, Cambridge City III battled back from a five-goal deficit to draw 5-5 at St Ives II in the East Men’s League Division 2 North West.

Laurie Humphrey gave City hope with two goals before half-time and Nick Jerman then reinforced this with a good penalty corner strike before Ben Journeaux delivered two goals to share the points.

In the same division Cambridge City IV have already been relegated, yet they rallied to chalk up their first victory of the season. Tom Lilley opened the scoring for City with a drag flick before Barnaby Warr was able to finish from close range to seal a 2-1 triumph over Cambridge South II.