Sidmouth and Ottery Hockey Club (SOHC) bounced back from their previous Southern One outing defeat to Okehampton by seeing off third in the table Tavistock, winning the game 4-2.

Poor availability throughout the club meant that the 1st XI travelled for the game with a bare 11, but, when they arrived for the fixture, they found Tavistock had similar availability woes for they were only able to field 10!

SOHC made a good positive start and a reverse stick effort from Jack Ellison, to finish off a slick move, gave them an early lead. The advantage was soon doubled thanks to a terrific penalty corner strike from Jonathan Hext.

The SOHC pressure continued and, when the home goalkeeper was penalised for ‘sitting on the ball’, Jack Ellison made it 3-0 from a penalty flick.

Tavistock hit back with a clinical finish, but a well-worked short corner routine saw Chris Bishop score to send SOHC into the break with a 4-1 lead.

For the first 20 minutes of the second half the game was well managed by SOHC. The home side, with nothing to lose, threw caution to the wind over the final quarter of the contest, pressing high up the pitch and their efforts were rewarded with a second goal.

Thereafter, what was a makeshift SOHC back line closed the game out well to leave their team deserved winners and still very much in what now looks to be a two-team race for the divisional top honour.

Eddie Rudolph was named Man of the Match for his terrific shift at centre back.