Hacker has work cut out

David Hacker, the Great Britain centre-half, masterminded a late second-half recovery as he made his Second Division debut as player-coach for Firebrands yesterday in their League game at Oxford University.

David Hacker, the Great Britain centre-half, masterminded a late second-half recovery as he made his Second Division debut as player-coach for Firebrands yesterday in their League game at Oxford University.

After goals from Ed Bevan and Michael Mayer, the students were well in control at the interval but the Firebrands eventually took the points with three goals in the last 12 minutes, two from Andrew Stevenson and the third from James Edington.

Hacker, however, has much work to do in the coming weeks if Firebrands are to be League contenders. They missed a string of open goals and failed to score from nine penalty corners although Chris Andrews, the Oxford goalkeeper made several outstanding saves.

St Albans were good value for their 5-1 win at Bromley with Nick Seagrave and Dominic Maguire each scoring twice.

Havant lead the way in the Second Division following their 4-1 win against Nottingham. The German striker Max Festge scored twice in the first half and Paul Hilton scored two late second-half goals.

The South African Justin King scored a hat-trick of penalty corners in Hampstead and Westminster's 4-2 win at Lewes while Chelmsford's South African recruit Wayne Denne opened the scoring for the Essex club in their 3-2 win away to Beeston. David Hunter and Will Rogers scored the others.

The Women's First and Second Divisions started their season on Saturday with no major surprises. Doncaster's 6-0 win over Trojans was the highlight.