Bolton Hockey Club’s men’s firsts ended their sluggish start to the North West Division Three South season with a 3-1 home win against Neston thirds.
The hosts blew the Wirral side away in a nine-minute period in the first half, three quickfire goals from open play deflating the opposition.
Lee Ramagge scored two trademark goals and Damien Pearse netted the easiest tap-in in history as two Neston players left it for each other, with the veteran stealing the spoils.
Neston did pull one back late in the second half, but the visitors offered little, and Bolton put together an assured performance to kickstart their season.
In the fourth week of North West Division Six East, the men’s seconds are still waiting to play at home but after a 3-0 victory at Buxton men’s seconds, they will not mind.
Bolton arrived in Derbyshire raring to go in their chase for promotion and looking to keep their 100-per-cent record going. They took the lead through Stuart Wallace’s rocket of a penalty corner strike.
Debutant Oliver Scales then made the most of a mix-up to intercept a poor pass inside the Buxton D and score his first senior goal.
In the second half, a penalty-corner routine saw Cameron Hall’s pass go straight into the net, as Bolton ran out comfortable winners to remain one of three teams with perfect league records.
The men’s thirds were on the wrong end of a 4-2 scoreline at Sale seconds.
The home team were kept at bay for the first half, but Bolton’s resistance finally cracked in the second as three goals in eight minutes saw Sale take the game away from them - or so it appeared.
Two quickfire replies from Richard Moore set up a grandstand finish but when Bolton pushed for an equaliser, Sale broke away and sealed victory in North West Division Six East.
Bolton women’s firsts have had a tough start to life a division down in North West Division Two South and it continued with a 2-0 home loss to Wrexham firsts.
The Welsh side finished in mid-table last year and are solid at this level - starting the season with a win, a draw and a loss.
The first half was a tight encounter of few chances, both teams probing for openings but creating little.
There were promising moments from Bolton, solid possession was translated into outcomes further up the field but they could not quite make it into chances. However, they restricted Wrexham to very few clear-cut chances of their own in a goalless first half.
Wrexham came out with renewed pressure in the second half, and earned the game’s first real chance, testing the Bolton keeper.
Then, on 50 minutes, the visitors opened the scoring from open play. A ball down the left was cut back from the back line before being slotted home for the opening goal.
The goal spurred Bolton into life and they pushed for an equaliser, but Wrexham had found their groove.
And it was they who scored again before the end to run out comfortabe winners.
The women’s seconds have had a steady start to the North West Division Four East season with two draws and a loss.
What they really needed was three points, but they had to settle for a 1-1 home draw against Rochdale firsts who had not picked up a point all season beforehand.
The opening goal came from a mistake in midfield from Bolton, with Rochdale pushing forward into space and working the ball around the keeper.
The goal was against the general run of play and Bolton came out on the front foot in the second half.
Some excellent play out wide saw the ball moved down the line and then across the D to Nicola Ashurst, who cut inside her defender to rifle the ball into the net.
Bolton pushed for a winner and had Rochdale on the back foot, but the away team held on for a point.
The women’s thirds secured a valuable 1-0 away win at Urmston against their development side in North West Division Six East.
An Eloise Brett-Andrew goal settled matters midway through the first half.
Both teams tried to add to the scoreline, but neither were able to as Bolton hung on for their first win of the season to take them off the bottom.
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