Keswick Hockey Club started the new season with two home games with comfortable victories for the Men’s 2nds and the Ladies 1sts.

The men were up against newly-promoted Horwich who started brightly enough with possession shared over the first 10 minutes.

However, Keswick had a few more experienced players in their team and they soon started to dominate midfield, which in turn led to scoring chances in the D.

The midfield and defence of Horwich had no answer to the runs of Jack Chippendale and Paul Sloan who drove their team forward relentlessly.

It was one of the younger members of the team, Ross Wright, who opened the scoring, combining well with Rikki Barnes.

Then Barnes started to turn the defenders inside out with his direct running game, and soon added a second goal.

Charlie Goodwin was on hand to score number three before Barnes grabbed his second goal to make it 4-0.

The Horwich team had started arguing amongst themselves, and although the writing was on the wall for them, they did score the next goal.

Any thoughts they had of a comeback were soon snuffed out as Barnes scored his third, and Keswick were now coasting to victory.

As soon as Horwich managed to score their second goal, Keswick upped the tempo for Goodwin to score his second for a final score of 6-2.

The Ladies were up next against Kirkby Stephen 2nds, and they were determined to carry on last year’s good form which saw them finish as runners-up in the league.

It proved to be an impressive start as they played like they finished last year and eventually ran out convincing 9-0 winners.

They controlled the game from the first whistle, with Saoirse Jennings-Adams, Katie Fisher, and Catherine Miller dominating midfield, with their accurate passing punishing any gaps in the Kirby defence.

Anne-Marie Cowperthwaite scored the first two goals, followed by one from Catherine Hadfield after several jinking runs at the defence. Fisher then scored a brace to take the lead out to 5-0.

It should be mentioned, however, that the Kirby defence was playing some good hockey with Carla Boustead and Emma Thorpe managing to thwart the Keswick attack on numerous occasions.

The pressure from Keswick, however, was relentless and it was no surprise when Rosie Heap put the ball in the net from the edge of the D for Keswick’s sixth.

Cowperthwaite knocked in number seven to complete her hat-trick and, not to be out done, Fisher then scored to complete her own hat-trick. Cowperthwaite then added another the ninth goal to complete the rout.