The beautiful sunshine did not appear to be a winning ingredient this week for Torbay Ladies Hockey first XI who lost 4-1 against Plymouth University. It was very encouraging to have a large crowd of local supporters, however the team was unable to pull another win out of the bag against Plymouth University whom they have previously beaten this season.

The team is attributing the loss to illness which affected a number of the team players and poor availability due to half-term.

Torbay had much of the possession throughout the game, however opportunistic Plymouth Uni caught Torbay on the break to score all four of their goals. Despite the score line, Wendy Clare, who was voted player of the match, did produce some top-quality saves.

Excellent team work and ball skills were displayed by the Torbay side, however they failed to find the goal, despite pressure on the Plymouth defence for most of the game.

Marilyn Jordan showed her skill in the form of a goal in the first half, however it was disallowed due to an earlier foul in the attacking D. Top scoring Pengilley also had a goal-mouth opportunity which was foiled by umpiring.

At half time Emily Goodchild tactically rearranged the depleated team to form the strongest possible defence against the university side, which proved to be successful: after losing the first half 3-0, Torbay were able to score in the second half and had many narrowly missed opportunities to strike at goal. Unwell Jordan was moved from the midfield into defence and, in combination with Lorna Wright and Fran Crispin, proved to be a force not to be reckoned with.

The goal was scored as a result of a short corner which was awarded for Plymouth feet getting in the way of a Torbay strike in the D after a strong build-up from Torbay's open play. The ball was stopped at the top of the D by high-octane Kate Hine and slipped to Pengilley who smashed it into the very corner of the goal with pin-point accuracy.

The first team has a week off next week when they will have an opportunity to review this week's performance and start to rebuild the winning teamwork they have developed during the season so far.

After a difficult first half with a score of 2-0, the second team changed tactics in the second half, bringing goalie Inma onto the pitch. Despite an open goal, Sidmouth were only able to score a single goal in the second half due to some brilliant team work and defending.