Doom and gloom for York

City of York hockey club's first team suffered a humiliating 4-1 home beating at the hands of lowly Swalwell.

After the exhilaration of the first half of their Northern Premier League season and last week's National Hockey Association Trophy triumph over Wisbech, it was a spectacular fall from grace for York.

Three gilt-edged opportunities in the first ten minutes were denied by the Swalwell 'keeper as the visitors soaked up the pressure. Swalwell took the lead when a fast break brought a short corner from which they scored.

Parity was restored when a crashed in ball by skipper Roz Ramli was fired home by Ian Butler.

The goal signalled another up-field onslaught by York but were punished yet again for neglecting their defensive duties when Swalwell netted on the stroke of half-time.

After the turnaround, the Swalwell 'keeper was in fine form as City's midfield gained a grip on the game.

Frustration set in, however, and City of York were reduced to nine men for a while as discipline deteriorated.

Swalwell took advantage to score twice more and then repelled another York onslaught in the dying stages with some stoic defending.

City of York II suffered a similar fate against Ramgarhia I, losing 5-1.

Ramgarhia opened the scoring before York were then made to pay for a missed penalty; the subsequent 16-yard hit penetrated City's midfield and the home team doubled their advantage.

Ramgarhia scored twice more before Alex Fletcher came off the bench to score.

It was too little too late as Ramgarhia added a late goal.

City of York III were beaten 6-4 by division three high-flyers Sheffield Bankers.

City conceded two goals in the first ten minutes.

Matthew Pickering reduced the deficit but Bankers restored their two goal advantage as half-time approached.Straight after the restart and Bankers went 4-1 up.

City's vice-captain Gavin Ward then banged in two goals but Bankers rallied again to fire in two more goals of their own.

Near the end, Ward completed his hat-trick with a stunning first-time strike.

City of York IV were crushed 8-1 by Sheffield University I.

The students looked a class above despite being pegged back by a Mark Lambert strike after taking the lead on ten minutes.

City of York V 'A' also found themselves outclassed by a university side Hallam University I.

Despite heroics by Trevor Pawson in goal and staunch defending by Tony Neeve, the final score was 7-0 to the students.

There was better news for City of York V 'B' who had a field day against an understrength St John's College to win 10-0.

Dick Cambridge, Bernard Chase, Tim Senior and Matt Couttie scored two each, the remaining goals coming from John Roberts and Jonathon Bell.

City of York VI 'A' put up a courageous fight against Leeds University IV but went down 6-1.

Andy Dent scored York's consolation

City of York VI 'B' team's game against Bradford III was cancelled.

City of York's youngsters had much to be proud of in their Yorkshire Youth League and West and North Yorkshire Mini-Hockey Championship fixtures.

City of York Under-14 Girls beat Chapeltown 3-0, drew with Ben Rhydding 0-0 and lost to Welton 1-0.

One member of the squad, Rachel Evans, has been selected to represent North Yorkshire Schools.

In the mini-hockey championships, York Under-11 Boys came sixth out of eight finalists when they drew with Almondbury 0-0, Harrogate 1-1 before losing to Wakefield 2-0.

York Under-13 Boys were divided into three teams for their league fixtures.

The 'A' team won through to the Yorkshire regional finals after beating Wakefield 2-1, Malsys 2-0, Ilkley School 1-0 and Ben Rhydding II 8-0.

The 'B' team lost to Ben Rhydding 2-0 and drew with Harrogate 1-1 and City of York 'C' 0-0, who beat Harrogate 1-0 and lost to Ben Rhydding 1-0.

Oliver Couttie, Luke Ramli, Simon Casterton and Ashley Watson played for Yorkshire B Under-14s in a 2-1 win over Staffordshire.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.