Marlow Men’s and Women’s first teams were on the road at the weekend, both at Bath Buccaneers, in the reverse fixtures from the first games of the season. First to take the trip down the M4 were the women on Saturday, keen to do better than the 3-0 defeat they suffered in September.

Marlow started strongly, and opened the scoring with a brilliant team goal slotted past the goalkeeper by Ruby Balcombe. Bath equalised minutes later with their own rocket of a strike from a penalty corner, before taking the lead with another goal from a penalty corner in the 11th minute. Lottie Porter put a great ball through to forward Lena Sykora which was saved to deny Marlow their own equalizer.

Bath were clinical in the second quarter with a further two goals, capitalizing on defensive errors with clinical accuracy to lead 4-1 at half time. Marlow showed resilience and played some great hockey in the third quarter with numerous attacking penalty corners but Bath defended well to deny them, and it was cruel when Bath scored their fifth moments before the whistle blew at the end of the third quarter.

At 5-1 down, Marlow rallied and were playing for pride. Elin Galvin put a lovely pass through to Lena Sykora whose shot on goal was deflected into the roof of the net by a Bath defender to give Marlow a glimmer of hope. Marlow continued to push and earned successive attacking penalty corners, from the last of which a straight strike from Poppy Godfrey made the score a respectable 5-3 against a side pushing strongly for promotion. Marlow fought to the final whistle with some great attacking play from Kiera Allen and Colette Fitzpatrick but were unable to score any further goals.

On Sunday, Marlow men followed the same route, itching to put the record straight after a tight first weekend defeat, which saw a Marlow equaliser ruled out in the final seconds. Marlow started strongly, and captain Sam North converted a penalty corner as early in the fourth minute, doubling the away side’s advantage by repeating the feat early in the second quarter. Bath hadn’t tasted defeat at home yet this season, and were stung into a response, getting a goal back from open play almost immediately, and drawing level just before half time. The third quarter was quieter, at least in terms of goals, and with five minutes left of the match, it looked as if both sides might have to settle for a draw.

But anyone who has watched Marlow this season knows the last few minutes of any match are likely to get the blood racing, and this week was no exception, Tom Ferris putting the reds ahead from a penalty stroke in the 65th minute. Back came Bath, equalising with just two minutes on the clock before Marlow’s goal machine Jayden Zammler secured the win in the final seconds.

This was a great performance, which extended Marlow’s unbeaten run to six matches, and saw them leap-frog their hosts to move up to second in the table. The England Hockey League now takes a mid-season break for indoor hockey until the end of January, and both Marlow teams will be itching to get back into action then.

England Hockey League West Conference tables, courtesy of England Hockey