St Albans HC ladies’ first team began their Investec Conference East league season with a 1-1 draw at Chelmsford last Saturday.

Tash Humphris converted the tangerines’ first penalty corner mid-way through the first half. Despite strong performances from Marie O’Brien and Amy Kee, Chelmsford were able to squeeze a goal from open play with just five minutes to go and the points were shared.

Meanwhile, the men’s 1sts notched up a win in their final friendly, beating East Grinstead 2nds 4-1. A drag flick from Matt Davey opened the scoring, with Luke Samarasinghe finishing in style in the roof of the net before the break. Ollie Goldstein and Scott Apps added the second half goals.

On Saturday the St Albans men travel to Hitchin for their league opener at Blueharts, while the ladies entertain Maidenhead at Oaklands, pushback 1pm. Then, following the success of last Monday’s first ‘youth hockey masterclass’ by international Ellie Watton, next week sees the club move in another direction with a new initiative building stronger links with University hockey programmes.

On Wednesday, September 24 the men welcome Loughborough Students for a match under floodlights at Oaklands, starting at 7.45pm