Mixed Fortunes for under 13s and seniors

 
In the second week of competitions it was the turn of the Ely Senior team and one of the under 13s to get their seasons underway in the Easter Counties Leagues
 
The seniors having been promoted as champions of division 3 were expecting tougher games and this is exactly what they found although the day got off to a good start against division 3 runners up The England Ladies. Ely were lacking one of their experienced players who was serving a suspension carried forward from the last league game. Mike Hart opened the scoring for Ely but the Ladies found an equaliser early in the second half. However Ely dug deep with James Cox scoring for a well deserved 2 -1 victory.
 
In the next game against Colchester goals from Sam Noble, Dan Salisbury and another by Hart were not enough to prevent a 10 – 4 loss. However Ely were soon back in winning ways with Rob Gillett and Salisbury finding the net 7 times between them for a 9 -7 win against Letchworth.
 
In the final game Ely faced Farnham a team that had won all their previous games. Ely withstood some early attacks but couldn’t prevent Farnham taking a 4 – 0 lead. They pulled one back before half time which gave some hope. A positive team talk during the break, some excellent goalkeeping from James Bayes and a Hart hat-trick all combined to give Ely the better of the second half but it was still not enough to prevent a 7 -5 loss.
 
In the under 13s it was the Ely Greens who travelled to Kings Lynn to get their season underway. The Blues were one of the teams sitting out this tournament although they get underway at the end of the month. Having finished second and third in last seasons second division both Ely teams find themselves in the much tougher 1st division. The Greens able to field an almost identical team to last year with one new face started their campaign against local rivals Cottenham. However they were unable to capitalise on some good goals, going down 8 -6. The second game was against some familiar players in the form of last years 2 division winners Norwich. In a close encounter Ely managed a 4 -3 win to get 3 points on the board. The final game was against an unbeaten strong Kings Lynn squad who ran out 10 – 4 winners.