Stourport men's 1st XI, in the first match since the return of the Midlands Premiership, hosted  Stratford and secured a comfortable 6-1 victory.

The match began at a frantic pace with Stourport threatening to attack whenever possible, and after eight minutes after Stourport took the lead through Josh Appleby.

Stratford leveled the scores from a short corner, when despite Andy Cavendish running down the initial attempt, Simon Claris picked the ball high above his head, only for the Stratford injector to pick up the ball and find the backboard.

Stourport continued to force the issue and after winning the ball in midfield allowed the opposition time on the ball, but it was Stourport who added to their score, when late in the first half, a Cavendish pass found Claris in space to deliver a perfect reverse stick cross which was turned into the net.

Stourport dominated from the start of the second half, before Claris scored the first of his brace and before Joe Schubert scored a trademark backhand across the keeper to extend the home side's lead to 4-1.

Then after a breathtaking run through the heart of the Stratford defence Claris scored his second and Stourport's fifth, with a ball that ended high in the net.

Adam Leeke rounded off the scoring for the home side.

The men's 2nd XI also claimed a home victory when they won 5-2 against Olton & West Warwickshire 3rd XI, in the West Midland Premiership.

The Men's 2nd XI found themselves ahead in the sixth minute when Phil Baldwin scored from open play beating a defender and then beating the keeper in a one-on-one. Stourport extended their lead after fourteen minutes.

Chris Miles making his return from injury added a third after twenty minutes before Olton pulled the scores back to 3-2, only for Stourport to extend the lead to 4-2 on thirty-two minutes just before the break.

Stourport added a fifth goal when a well-worked short corner after fifty-two minutes, saw Chris Hoare put the ball past the keeper into the bottom left-hand corner.

'The men's 5th XI travelled to Birmingham University 6th XI in the South West 3 league and found themselves on the end of a 1-8 reverse.'

Despite the scoreline, Stourport battled hard throughout the match against the strongest side in the league, the visitors were only 1-2, Stourport's goal coming from Paul Hutton in the thirtieth minute, down at the break, and were still in the game with final fifteen minutes to go. This was largely down to their player of the match keeper Wayne Berry who kept the score down, and the under 16s in the squad who are getting stronger with every match.

The ladies' 2nd XI lost 0-6 in the Midlands Premier League, travelled to Warwick where they lost to their hosts Khalsa Leamington who'd just been relegated to from the National League.

Stourport had hoped to build on their winning ways but after a slow start to the match, the visitors found themselves 0-3. Stourport began to put some fine passes together, towards the end of the first half, which resulted in a number of short corners for the visitors. However, due to some good defending by Khalsa Stourport was unable to make this count.

Stourport continued to push forward but was unable to make any meaningful chances that would test the home keeper. As the match wore on Khalsa added a further two goals to make it 0-5, and then added a sixth in a match that Stourport would rather forget.

Stourport ladies' 3rd XI also took on a side from Khalsa Leamington, when they entertained their 2nd XI. And as in the 2nd match, it resulted in a 0-1 defeat for the Stourport side.

Stourport found themselves under pressure for long periods of the match but the youngsters in the side had some great performances and created some good breaks, but, couldn't prevent Khalsa from scoring. Stourport's second-half performance was much better but, despite not conceding in the second half, Khalsa's single goal in the first half was enough to secure the victory.   

Report submitted by Stourport Hockey Club