BEN Rhydding Ladies first team returned to league and cup action at the weekend.

They ravelled down to play Leicester on Saturday, and went down to a 2-0 defeat in the Conference North.

On Sunday, they entertained Brooklands Poynton in the England Hockey Championships and through two goals by Beth Cordukes and a third by sister Amy they took a commanding 3-0 lead.

Brooklands struck back late in the second half with two goals, but the strong Ben Rhydding defence rallied and held off the Brooklands forwards in the last few minutes to take the 3-2 win. They are now into the quarter-finals.

The men's first team played at Chapeltown and took an early lead through Myles Locke. Chapeltown struck back twice and lack of discipline almost cost Rhydding more goals.

They settled down and pulled back through two goals by Will Musgrave and one by Callum Franks to seal a 4-2 win.

On Sunday, the men's over 40s entertained Alderley Edge in a very close and tense affair.

Both goalkeepers were in fine form and it came down to one clever short corner routine to get around Phil Weaver in the Rhydding goal to give Alderley Edge the 1-0 victory.

The men's over 50s (current England hockey champions) played at Cambridge in a tense game. Rhydding coming from behind three times to take a 5-4 victory in the final minutes. They play an away tie against Stourport in the semi-final.

This Saturday sees both first teams at home as the ladies play Belper at 1.30pm, followed by the men who play Doncaster at 3pm.

Then on Sunday the under-18 girls play Repton in the quarter-final of the England Hockey Championships at 1.30pm.