Holcombe 2, Dereham Ladies 1Dereham travelled to Kent in the East Women's Hockey League and suffered their first defeat for over a year, losing to Holcombe in the Premier Division.

Holcombe 2, Dereham Ladies 1

Dereham travelled to Kent in the East Women's Hockey League and suffered their first defeat for over a year, losing to Holcombe in the Premier Division.

The visitors started well and were unfortunate not to be two or three up. Several chances were missed and Holcombe came back after 20 minutes and scored before half-time.

Dereham started the second half strongly and equalised after 10 minutes with a drag flick by Donna Causton from a penalty corner. Dereham could not put the ball into the back of the net after that and were punished when Holcombe scored from one of their rare chances.

Dereham Ladies II 4, North Walsham Ladies 0

Dereham moved up to third place in Division 2NE after a fantastic home win which sees them unbeaten after three league games.

The home side got off to a flying start with some beautiful passing hockey down the right, which saw Rachel Cramp open up the scoring after only five minutes. Shortly after this it was the turn of another Dereham forward, Jess Shand, to add to the score and the home side finished the half brightly 2-0 up.

North Walsham made a few runs into the Dereham half at the start of the second half and were awarded several short corners, which they failed to capitalise on. A lovely goal from Charlotte Reeve meant each of Dereham's forwards had got on the score sheet, before Louise Bunning made it four to cap off a brilliant performance.

Falcon Capital's player of the match went to Verity Thorp and Rachel Cramp, who paired up to form a formidable force down the right.

Next, Dereham face a home tie against table-topping Norwich Dragons.

Dereham Ladies Colts 2, UEA 2nds 0

THIS was the Colts first home game of the season and the first 15 minutes were very scrappy with both teams getting too crowded into the middle of the pitch.

As Dereham began to bring more width into their game, they began to take the game to UEA. The new attacking combination of Ellie Boyce, Alice Tarry and Pixie worked well.

Dereham dominated from the start of the second half but had to be wary of some fast breaks by UEA. Sweeper Helen Kiddle-Morris began to build a good understanding with Krissy Barnard at left back and Emily Crisp at right back and together with captain Heather Morgan they snuffed out UEA's attacks. Barnard's speed on the field and when running out from short corners proved invaluable. Dereham's first goal was scored by Ellie Boyce after good combination passing from midfielders Hannah Tarry and Juliette Richardson working well with Tiff Sands.

Short corners did not yield any goals but another period of sustained pressure saw Dereham bag a second following a goalmouth scrap, with Pixie claiming her second in consecutive games, despite a hint of an own goal.

The Ben Burgess player of the match trophy was awarded to Krissy Barnard.

The Colts are at home at 10.30 on Saturday against Lowestoft Railway.

Dereham U18 2, Bury St Edmunds 0

DEREHAM drew Bury at home in the first round of England Hockey's national U18 girls' cup tournament.

Dereham beat Bury easily in the second round of last year's tournament but the pre-match briefing stressed that complacency had to be avoided even though Bury arrived with only nine players.

Dereham's new pitch withstood hours of torrential rain but the ball moved progressively slower across the pitch.

A great strike by Jess Shand hit the post but the rebound was not converted. Shand hit the post a second time and more attacks led to a hatful of short corners.

The Bury keeper made several good saves. Finally the pressure brought a goal from Jess Shand in the 23rd minute and a second followed from Becca Colman two minutes later.

Despite waves of attacking play, Dereham failed to increase their lead with the Bury defence holding fast as Dereham failed to use the width of the pitch to stretch the opposition.

Bury made few inroads into Dereham's final 25 metres in the second half and at the other end their keeper pulled out another string of fine saves. Bury's stalwart defence and the post again held Dereham at bay until the whistle blew early due to pitch conditions.

Round two of the U18 Cup will be played on November 9 and Dereham wait to see who they have drawn.