Captain Clare is Witham's hat-trick heroine

Essex Women’s League division one

Captain Clare Ledwell fired home a hat-trick as Witham Hockey Club’s ladies beat division one’s bottom side to move up to fourth in the table.

The hosts began to dish the ball around the pitch through passes from Adriana Kelidi and April Gardner and attacked Southend’s D at full pace, with Hannah Cagney driving the ball towards goal.

Player-of-the-match Rebecca Baker battled hard on the rebound and managed to slip the ball past the Southend keeper for the opening goal.

Witham’s passing accuracy began to slip slightly which gave Southend more chances to attack, but the hard work and solid tackles of Sarah Smith, Lucy Selkirk and Sara Smith meant they didn’t manage to get far.

Sue Rayner and Hannah Wright kept the width and found the stick of Florencia Loray, who fired the ball forward to Ledwell and she put Witham two goals ahead.

Witham were unable to stretch their lead from several penalty corners, but there was no doubting the shooting accuracy of top scorer Ledwell as she slipped the ball past the keeper for a 3-0 lead.

In the second half keeper Michelle Fussell had work to do to keep Southend at bay.

However, Witham lost their shape when Ledwell had to leave the pitch for treatment and the visitors took advantage with a goal, but Ledwell soon returned and completed her hat-trick after firing home a ball forward by Laura Smith for a 4-1 victory.