Holcombe were again impressive as they beat Oxted 7-2 at Holcombe Park on Saturday evening, with goals in every quarter from Kwan Browne’s side. 

Teague Marcano moved onto 11 for the season with a penalty corner goal at the end of the first period before Felix Tully scored his first Holcombe league goal to double the advantage around five minutes into Q2.

Michael Roydon-Turner smashed the ball over Ollie Payne’s shoulder from a tight angle to reduce the deficit just before the half-hour mark but a Matt Ramshaw brace in the third period restored Holcs’ two-goal lead and then extended the advantage. 

Oxted stayed in the game for long spells and weren’t done yet as Guy Morgan’s penalty corner goal brought them back within two but Nick Giles’ side were blown away late on with three fourth quarter goals from their hosts through Tully, Tom Russell and Alex Pendle. 

Holcs started brightly, looking for an early goal to force Oxted to be more expansive rather than sit in and look to counter, but were not able to consistently threaten Robbie MacLellan’s goal in the opening exchanges until Marcano’s drag-flick gave the hosts the lead at the end of the quarter. 

Tully had perhaps been unlucky to not score yet for his new club but had MacLellan to thank for his first Holcombe goal – the goalkeeper let a long ball run past him, assuming it was going out of play, but Tully chased it down and slid to stretch for the ball and score from a tight angle with MacLellan back-pedalling to no avail. 

Royden-Turner, who has recently returned from the Sultan of Johor Cup, was afforded far too much space on the right-hand side as Oxted did start to venture forward more in an attempt to wrestle some momentum back. He burst into the circle and fired powerfully past Payne from a tough angle by putting the ball in perhaps the one spot that was unreachable for the Great Britain goalkeeper. 

Ramshaw, another impressive summer signing, looked to almost single-handedly take the game away from the visitors in Q3, slapping the ball over the outstretched MacLellan again from a tough angle before picking up a Russell pass in the circle, stepping into the backspace and shooting powerfully past the goalkeeper for his brace. 

Morgan’s goal perhaps came with a little luck as Oxted reduced the arrears to two goals at the end of the third period. Payne initially saved well down low to his left before a follow-up shot hit the bar, with Morgan then reacting well from close range to prod home.

Neither side wanted to give too much away in the early blows of the final quarter with the next goal crucial – and Holcs did eventually get that through Tully’s second of the evening just past the hour mark. Good work down the left saw the ball played across goal and he was on hand to smash the ball past MacLellan from close range before Russell finished – again from close range – soon after when a loose ball fell his way in the circle following good work from Rohan Bhuhi and Rob Field from a quick free hit. 

The scoring was not done, though, with Pendle scoring his second in as many weeks in the last two minutes. Russell and Field linked up superbly in the corner with the latter driving into the circle and teeing up Pendle, who calmly slotted into the side netting to give the goalkeeper no chance and make it 25 goals in their last five for Browne’s side and to keep the pressure on second-placed Surbiton. 

Victory keeps Holcombe within a point of Barry Middleton’s side who face Old Georgians and Hampstead & Westminster in their final two Phase One matches, while Holcs take on Southgate and Beeston. 

Elsewhere in the Premier Division, a 5-0 win for Old Georgians at Hampstead made it nine wins out of nine for the Surrey side, Sam Ward (3) and Tom Carson (2) sharing the goals. 

Surbiton’s men matched their women in winning 6-0 at Bowdon as part of their double-header – Struan Walker scored four and was joined on the scoresheet by captain Tim Nurse and Gareth Furlong. 

Wimbledon were also big winners as they put five past Cardiff & Met with no reply to secure their Top Six spot. Sam Hooper’s early goal put the hosts on their way but the other four goals came in the third and fourth quarters through Samuel McCulloch, Fred Newbold and Ben Francis (2). 

With Hampstead needing just one point to secure their Top Six berth, Beeston, Oxted and Cardiff are battling for sixth but Beeston could not take full advantage of the other two sides losing as they drew 4-4 with East Grinstead at Saint Hill, a result which sees Oxted stay sixth. 

Louis Tipper gave the hosts a lead through Q1 before Henry Croft responded midway through the second quarter. Tipper again put East Grinstead infront until Jamie Rawlings’ second-half goal restored parity. Hugh Pembroke gave the home side the lead once more with Croft levelling in the 67th minute and Wes Jackson’s side surely thought they had won it when Tipper completed his hat-trick with less than two minutes to play, only for Croft to do the same in the final minute for 4-4. 

In the six-pointer at the bottom, Southgate and Richmond drew 1-1 with Scott Wall giving the visitors the lead inside ten minutes before the in-form Archie Foster replied for Huw Steven’s men soon after. That draw keeps Southgate a point above Richmond and a point above the bottom two ahead of the former hosting Holcombe this weekend.

Image: Jon Goodall