On Saturday the Okehampton men’s hockey team entertained Shepton Mallet in South Division One of the England Hockey League.

The sides hadn’t played each other before, so the game as a cagey affair as the sides tested out each other defence.

It was the visitors who took the lead following a goalmouth scramble, and this encouraged Oke to begin to build some more meaningful attacks and gradually they put pressure on the visitors. Oke pressed forward with Luke Maxa and Josh Speak working hard, and they were rewarded when a defensive error by the visitors resulted in a penalty stroke. Captain Luke Liversidge stepped up and despatched the ball into the roof of the net to level the scores. Oke continued to force errors in the Shepton defence, but were unable to add to their tally before half time

An inspirational half time team talk seemed to fire Oke up and they started the second half with much more purpose and direct running which the opposition could not deal with. Probing runs from Jack Watson, ably supported by the midfield of Jake Griffiths and AP, tested the visitors and led to an excellent second goal being scored by Luke Liversidge.

Shepton were not to be out done and began to develop their own attacks, but the Oke defence were solid in reply. With ten minutes to go the visitors forced a number of penalty corners, but Oke defended well and were quick on the break when the chance arose. As the game drew to a close, Maxa fed the ball to Watson whose clinical strike made the game safe for Oke and maintained their unbeaten run in the league.

They face a stiff challenge next week with a trip to Exeter to play the University 4’s.

The second team will be at home to Tavistock in a local derby match, starting at 12.15pm at Okehampton college.