Winchester 1st XI 7, Oxford University 2nd XI 2

An error-festooned opening from Winchester saw them fall behind to a flashed penalty corner in the first five minutes. Regaining their composure, Winchester took the initiative which they never relinquished. Player/coach Ben Hibberd produced a wonderful piece of skill to leave two defenders for dead, then crossed the ball to the waiting Josh Cotterill whose initial shot hit the post, but the sprawling attacker was able to push the rebound over the line. Cotterill was able to repay his debt to Hibberd shortly afterwards as Rory Jack's aerial was missed by Oxford and Cotterill raced away, eventually slipping past the waiting Hibberd whose delayed shot was delightful in deceiving the committed Oxford keeper. 

Hibberd successfully converted a penalty stroke before halftime to take a 3-1 lead into the break, but there was more to come quickly for Winchester as Will Leyland broke away from his marker and sent a 30-metre pass across the pitch the waiting Charlie Harrigan whose fierce reverse strike went through the Oxford keeper. Winchester were dominating play with Steve Poole being key to ball winning in midfield. His interception sent centre forward Ben Anthony on his way to round the keeper for an excellent solo goal. Winchester's seventh penalty corner finally proved effective when Cotterill roofed the ball directly from the top of the D. Oxford responded with a rare foray with their penalty corner routine dragging the score back to 6-2, but Winchester had one more goal in them, Leyland feeding the surging Ed Kirkpatrick whose cross found Mark Maunsell at the far post whose strike needed to be timed to perfection, and it was.

Winchester's 100 per cent record was maintained, as was Fareham's, but goal difference took the former back to the top of the league.

Winchester Wanderers 0  Portsmouth 2

This week saw a visit from a much stronger Portsmouth team than the one faced at Portsmouth 3three weeks ago.  As with the earlier game, the two sides had very different playing styles.  Wanderers played a short passing game, whereas Portsmouth relied on long, hard-hit passes from defence.  Both styles were effective in their own ways.  The game was very even with little to separate the two teams.  The Portsmouth long passes often bypassed the Wanderers midfield but the defence smothered the Portsmouth attacks with the defence lining up to make series of tackles - ably assisted by some fine saves by Paul Bolam in goal.  Then, just before halftime, a Portsmouth shot was blocked by Bolam but, somehow, it managed to creep just inside the far post.  0-1 at halftime.
The second half continued in the same vein.  Even, end-to-end hockey.  Portsmouth won a short corner just before the end of the game.  The shot was well saved but it was a Portsmouth player who got to the lose ball first to make it 0-2.
A hard fought, close, but enjoyable game that could have gone either way.