HORWICH Hockey Club men's first team claimed the local bragging rights with a 4-2 victory over Bolton's second team.

Both teams were looking for their first wins of the season after suffering opening-day defeats.

Horwich took the lead with a fine finish from Tim Hayward before their local rivals hit back with an equaliser from a short corner.

Tony Sanderson restored Horwich's lead but Bolton again replied to make it 2-2.

The sequence of scoring continued when Sanderson was fouled and Andy Robertson expertly converted the resulting penalty flick to send his side into the interval with a 3-2 lead.

The second half was played out mainly in the Bolton half and Robertson made it 4-2 with a thumping strike.

Horwich second team maintained their excellent start to the season with a resounding 7-0 victory at Leyland and Chorley third team.

Mo Rashid opened the scoring with the first of his four goals after a clinical pass from Matt Tuppen.

The visitors stepped up the pace, scoring another three before the break and maintained the high tempo in the second half.

The winning theme was continued by the club's ladies' first team with a 6-3 victory at Urmston second team.

Some neat passing through midfield set up the first goal with a ball across goal that Helen Roocroft slotted home.

Kelly Urmston made it 2-0 five minutes later with a superb finish from a well-executed pass from player-of-the-match Heather Glynn.

After Urmston halved the arrears Donna Vinten picked up a great pass from Glynn and finished to make it 3-1.

Urmston were not lying down and pulled a goal back to go into the break 3-2 behind.

And they struck first in the second half to level the scores, which proved to be the wake-up call Horwich needed.

Straight from the restart Roocroft and Vinten exchanged passes before Roocroft struck her second of the day to put Horwich ahead 4-3.

Vintens grabbed her second to make it 5-3, and a superb through ball from Roocroft found Jeanette Brew who confidently placed the ball past the keeper to complete the scoring.

Horwich ladies' second team could not make it a clean sweep of victories for the club as they went down 5-0 at home to Didsbury Northern's sixth team.

A week after losing to the same side in the cup there were positives for the new team to take.

Zara Kour and Sara Barber produced eye-catching performances, the defence battled well and goalkeeper Nic Dodds had another outstanding game.

Most of the first half was played in the Didsbury half and they were unfortunate to go into half time 1-0 behind.