Contrasting fortunes for Thurrock Hockey Club's two top teams

The men’s first team crushed bottom side University of Essex 7-0 to record just their second win of the season in Eastern Region Division Three South East.

They remain second from bottom but are now just two points adrift of Brentwood’s second team.

The ladies first team were well beaten by high-flying Sevenoaks in division two south east and are now eighth in the table.

It was a better result for the ladies’ second team who beat Havering III 3-1 with all their goals coming in a dominant first half.

Charlene Curtis was chosen as player of the match after a great game in the midfield.

The men’s second team got off to a poor start to Maldon II in division seven south east and never recovered, going down 6-2.

T’s conceded an early goal and then things went from bad to worse as they went 4-0 down by half time.

Thurrock recovered some pride in the second half, by getting goals from Olu Akinwande and Matt Fleming, though conceded another two more goals.

The ladies third team played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Basildon.

Jackie Simmonds put her team into a 1-0 lead with a penalty flick before Basildon equalised and then edged in front themselves.

Within minutes of the restart, T’s equalised from player-of-the-match Jo Diss.

Basildon fought back and took the lead again. But Diss was in determined mood and scored again to bring the score to 3-3 Thurrock were then caught out by not playing to the whistle and Basildon re-took the lead.

In the last 10 minutes T's were awarded a short corner and the ladies reverted to a tried and tested tactic between Simmonds and Chloe Brady which resulted in Brady firing home.

The final minutes were hard fought with neither team wanting a draw and Shannon Harvey was so unlucky not to put her team in the lead.

The men’s third team were awarded a 5-0 win as their opponents in division nine south east, Romford, couldn’t raise a team.