Rivals Spalding 5th and Long Sutton 4th battled out a 5-5 draw in East Men’s Hockey League Division 6NW (N) at Surfleet.
Spalding were never behind in the match after taking the lead through a penalty. Sutton replied thanks to an Ian White penalty, but soon found themselves trailing by a couple of goals.
They pulled one back with an own goal after a great through ball from Dan Oldfield, then White added to his flick with a strike from open play and it was all square.
Again the hosts took the lead, but skipper White pegged them back once more with a looping drag flick from a short corner to complete his hat-trick.
Spalding thought they had it in the bag with a fifth goal, but Ollie Gayford pounced on a loose ball from a short corner to restore parity.
• Long Sutton Ladies’ 1st suffered a narrow 2-1 loss at Pelicans Ladies’ 1st in East Women’s League Division 1N.
Sutton took the lead midway through the first half after winning a free hit just outside the D. Hannah Greenacre quickly passed the ball to Sarah Walker, who fed it into Katie Ireland. She turned and fired the ball past the stranded keeper.
Sutton continued to control the half with slick passing from Mel Ludlam and Ireland on the left and Greenacre and Tania White down the right, but Pelicans regrouped at half time and two quick goals saw them move 2-1 ahead. Sutton were then harshly reduced to ten players when Leanne Woodhead was harshly sin binned.
They did have chances when she returned – including a missed last-gasp short corner.