Ely continued their first National Division 1 campaign with a trip to Sheffield.

First up was a new team to Ely, Halifax whose entire team is older and more experienced.  Ely started defending well but let the opposition have too much space as the half wore on. Halifax exploited this with some well taken long shots giving them a 6 – 1 lead at half time. In the second half Ely improved their game defended tighter and didn’t let Halifax play. All the chances went Elys way but they could only score 2 leaving the score 6 – 3 but this showed what they are capable of with a little more discipline (Sam Arnold, Dan Salisbury and James Cox)

Game 2 was against Houghton Regis another very experienced time and last years champions. Ely went 2 – 0 down early on but pulled one back and were matching Regis and could have easily equalised. The game got a little tense midway through the half which together with some sportsmanship from the opposition and a head injury to Max Dunand unsettled Ely and they went in 5 – 1 down at the break. Like a lot of games this season the second half was a different story. It was 0 – 0 until the last minute when Regis scored for a 6 – 1 win (Arnold).

The third game against Sheffield again started badly with an early goal. Ely however fought hard and got themselves in front 2 -1 only for Sheffield to draw back level. This was the pattern of the game with only one goal in it with Sheffield holding a narrow 5 -4 lead well into the second half. Ely then played some of their best hockey with excellent counter attacking. They scored 4 more goals in the final few minutes and a well-deserved  8 – 5 win (Cox 4, Arnold 2 and Dunand 2)