East Women’s Hockey League

Premier Division

COLCHESTER snatched a last minute draw in a difficult match against Cambridge University on Saturday.

The home side, who were without four of their regular players, started brightly enough but most of the opening exchanges took place in the middle of the pitch. Colchester created a few chances via penalty corners and were unlucky not to take the lead when Linda Rose struck the ball across the ‘D’ only for Angela Roberts to miss time her sweep towards goal.

At the other end the visitors were also winning penalty corners but the Colchester defence held firm. Late into the half Cambridge University broke the deadlock after an unmarked player tapped in at the far post after the ball was hit across the front of the goal.

The second half saw much of the same with neither side creating any clear cut chances despite winning several penalty corners. The visitors doubled their lead midway through the half after their forward had dived to deflect the ball into the far corner of the goal.

At 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go it looked to be all over for Colchester, but some clever interplay found Evie Hampson clear on goal, where she turned strong past one defender and calmly slotted the ball past the University keeper to give the home side a glimmer of hope.

Colchester earned another penalty corner with minutes to go, this time the ball found the back of the net only for goal to be disallowed for a foot in the build up. A final free hit from outside the ‘D’ found Karen Harris who passed towards Ellison’s man of the match Angela Roberts whose first time sweep flew into the far corner to give Colchester the draw as the final whistle blew.