Sidmouth & Ottery Hockey Club (SOHC) men’s 1st XI played their first match in the Conference South and shared eight goals with Westbury A.

In a bright start, SOHC dominated the first 15 minutes and it was certainly against the run of play when, 15 minutes in, the visitors scored! The response was both swift and clinical as George Harvey Powell and Treave Harris scored in quick succession. In an end-to-end first half Westbruy levelled things up before a close range goal from Nick Mansfield saw SOHC in at the break with a 3-2 lead.

Wesbury made a flying start to the second half and levelled things up at 3-3, scoring from one of a number of penalty corners.

SOHC were soon back on the front foot and, with time running out the home side must have felt they had bagged a first day win thanks to a Max Moore goal, but there was enough time left for Westbury to net the games eighth and final goal via a short corner. George Mutter was named the Man of the Match and a feature of the SOHC team was that no fewer than ix of those that played had come through the clubs youth system!

SOHC men's 2nd XI made a winning start to the South Eats One campaign with a 2-0 success over ISCA D. Playing in an unfamiliar 3/5/2 formation, SOHC settled into the game well and Martin Rees-Davies marked his debut for the team with the opening goal from a short corner.

That was followed by a neat finish from Gabe Cortinhas to leave SOHC 2-0 up at the break, In the second half SOHC managed the game well and were able to see out the remainder of the action in a degree of comfort.

SOHC men's third team powered to a resounding 7-2 success at Taunton Civil Service with Andrew Coley taking the individual honours, scoring a hat-trick. The third team had fallen behind to an early goal, but some impressive all-round play and goals from Charlie Piper, Matthew Offer-Hoar and Andrew Coley, saw SOHC take a 3-1 lead into the interval. There was more of the same from SOHC after the break with Coley bagging his second before the Somerset side got one back. Coley then completed his hat-trick before Tom Jeacock and Sam Lefebvre got on the score sheet as well. With two wins from two outings and 14 goals, SOHC III have made a fine start to the new league term.

The men's fourth team lost 5-0 against Isca E when they played them at Ottery St Mary.

In terms of the men's action tomorrow (Saturday, October 5), the 1st XI entertain PGSOB at Ottery (12.45pm), the 2nd XI travel to Minehead A who they meet at the West Somerset Leisure Centre (2pm) and the 3rd XI host Minehead B at Sidmouth (noon). The 4th XI travel to Wells to meet Mid Somerset A (1pm).