BEN Rhydding Men’s first team secured promotion to the England Hockey Leagues (Conference North Division), with a solid home performance against Sheffield Bankers at the weekend.

It took a while for Rhydding to settle down and become more clinical in the final third. However, just before 30 minutes had been played Rhydding got a short corner and Will Musgrave capitalized, getting the ball through the defending Bankers’ bodies for the opening goal.

A flurry of goals was to follow before the end of the first half. George Gamble finished a nice move in the 32nd minute, on the end of some seamless passing, shifting the ball confidently and crisply across the width of the pitch. Only a minute later, Will Musgrave crunched the ball into the backboard off another short corner.

The start of the second half saw Rhydding dominate with the ball, creating more chances. However, it was not until 19 minutes into the second half that Rhydding maximised on the pressure they were creating, and Ewan Wardle made it 4-0.

Despite the Rhydding defence holding firm and looking solid for 60 minutes, it was breached by Bankers who reduced the deficit to three with a penalty stroke. However, Rhydding held firm after this and they very much deserved the final result of 4–1 and the prize of promotion that went with this.

The celebratory post-match fizz was well earned by the whole Ben Rhydding squad; smiles and cheers topped off a great season in front of a large home crowd.