Keswick Hockey Club again staged three matches at the weekend but the first one might be remembered for the wrong reasons.

Although the men’s 3rds got the day away well with a 3-2 win, opponents Leigh showed a rotten attitude and their conduct was the worst seen since last year, when the men’s 2nd team played.... Leigh!

Fortunately, the team had some more experienced players involved, as it would have been unfortunate if Keswick had had to expose their young players to the antics of the visitors.

Not only did they swear and argue with Sophie Parker, standing as umpire, but gave exactly the same treatment to the other umpire, who had travelled with them from Leigh.

The first half was a tight affair, with frequent breaks in play for fouls. However the Keswick team weathered the Leigh tactics, and with the experienced Paul Heap taking the brunt of the fouls, the younger members of the team started to find the space they needed to make inroads into the oppositions D.

George Borley came more and more into the game from deep positions to create chances for Henry King and Dan Owen. With only five minutes of the first half remaining, it was Owen who opened the scoring to give Keswick them a slender interval lead.

After the break, Keswick continued to apply plenty of pressure, and Matty Burridge was able to score twice from the edge of the D to extend Keswick’s lead.

When the visitors stopped arguing and played, they showed that they are capable of producing some good hockey, and they were able to score through Stephen Kirk and John Brunt to bring the score back to 3-2.

Keswick created more chances and should have scored a couple more goals but, all things considered, it was a great result.

The men’s 2nd team fielded a strong team for their game with Warrington and were rewarded with an 8-3 victory.

They had the bulk of possession for long periods of the first half, and this was frequently turned into goals.

Peter Sutton opening the scoring with Rikki Barnes soon adding a second as Jack Chippendale, Paul Sloan and Robert Owen made run after run into the heart of the Warrington defence. They pulled defenders out of position and made space for Barnes and Luke Heap to run into unmarked positions.

It was against the run of play that Warrington scored the next goal, however, with Ben Vickers scoring for the visitors.

Keswick kept up their pressure and were soon rewarded when Heap scored before Barnes quickly scored his second despite falling after an accidental clash with a Warrington defender.

Heap was on hand to score just before half-time to send Keswick into the break with a handsome 5-1 lead.

After the break, Warrington looked determined to restore some pride, and they scored first through Andy Garrod.

Ross Wright and Mikey Watson were giving great support to the Keswick attack, and it wasn’t long before Barnes completed his hat-trick. He was soon followed on to the score sheet by Paul Sloan.

Warrington came back again and Vickers scored his second, before Heap rounded off the scoring for Keswick by completing his hat-trick.

Unfortunately, the Ladies 2nd’s couldn’t round-off a winning afternoon as they lost 1-0 to Ambleside in a cup game.

The Keswick team had a couple of changes from last week’s win against Wigton, however they kept to the same patient build-up play which has seen them improve hugely over the last 12 months.

Kate Whitmarsh and Fiona Chapman provided a solid base at the back to build on.