ELY rounded off the first half of the season with a 4-1 win over Spalding 1st XI leaving them eight points clear at the East Hockey League. A Tommy Hugo double together with goals from Chris Vincett and Stu Clarke secured a comfortable win for Ely with th

ELY rounded off the first half of the season with a 4-1 win over Spalding 1st XI leaving them eight points clear at the East Hockey League.

A Tommy Hugo double together with goals from Chris Vincett and Stu Clarke secured a comfortable win for Ely with the win making it a clean sweep in the first-half in the season with 11 wins from 11 games.

The first 20 minutes saw the two sides closely matched, with neither team able to chalk anything up on the scoreboard. The deadlock was finally broken courtesy of Tommy Hugo, who also broke a scoring dry spell in the process, as he hit an stinging effort high into the Spalding goal.

Ely pushed on after Hugo's goal and some decent attacking play saw the home side start to overawe the visitors. Skipper Chris Vincett soon scored the second giving Ely a cushion as they went into the half-time break.

Early into the second-half Spalding's lone front man broke away from his marker and scored making it 2-1. Ely though, remained unfazed and responded immediately with Feroze Abbas threading a ball into the Spalding area to allow Chris Purlant to smash the ball ferociously toward the Spalding goal. A deft nudge by Hugo defeated the keeper and made it 3-1 to Ely.

The home side completed the scoring with a goal from Stu Clarke who got his stick to the ball after a cross in from Tom Rutledge, once more the deflection sending the ball in the opposite side of the goal to the Spalding 'keeper.