Sidmouth and Ottery Hockey Club men’s fourth team completed what for them, this season, is a most unusual act – they ‘won’ both halves of their hockey match to secure their first win of the season thanks to a 4-1 success in their league game at Bridgwater.

A feature of the success was that every player involved for SOHC made a contribution to the cause with Andrew Coley taking the individual honours for his hat-trick.

It was Coley who fired SOHC into the lead, applying a delicate reverse stick finish after a fine run from the top of the D by Richard Lucas.

The home side hit back, but they got little change out of an organised and disciplined SOHC back line.

The lead was doubled with Coley again the scorer. This time it was Wilf Chun who initiated the move that saw Woody Thorpe rifle a shot that beat the keeper, but was ‘running out of steam’ on its way to the net before Coley made sure to drive the ball home.

During the break, sporting a 2-0 advantage, the SOHC players were urged by skipper Dan Weedon to deliver ‘more of the same’ in the second half.

However, it was the home side who scored the opening goal of the second half – netted midway through the period with a fine reverse stick shot.

The SOHC response to being pegged back was good and the two-goal advantage was restored and it was that man Coley who completed his hat-trick, again scoring from close range with the assist down to Chun.

Hat-trick scorer Coley remarked: “The combined distance to the goal line for all three of my goals can only have been about two feet. Still, at least it’s difficult to miss from that distance!”

The final goal for SOHC was scored by Paul Baker, who took the ball from a short corner, and, unopposed at the top of the D, drilled the ball home.

In what was an excellent all-round show, there were some terrific individual shifts, particularly from Thorpe, Chun, Charlie Piper and Will Harris.

SOHC 4th XI skipper Dan Weedon said: “I just want to emphasise how proud I am of this performance.

“All of the things we have been working on all season came to fruition and the win was thoroughly deserved.

“Special ‘shout outs’ to Will Harris and Charlie Piper, who put in a phenomenal amount of running and caused the opposition all kinds of problems all game long.

“Here’s hoping we can now take this momentum into our next game.”