South London’s Balham made the trip out to Bromley, fought valiantly but ultimately lost out 6-5.

Balham set up with Luke Broadberry, Charlie Corfield, Gemma Matthews and Anna MacBride in attack and Nils Sundstrom, Alex Aiton, Megan Ridsdale and Ellie Purvis in defence. Balham started slowly, misplaced passes and stuttering movement led to disjointed and ineffective attacks, but Charlie broke the deadlock on 5 minutes with a mid-range shot. The goal woke Bromley up and they scored the next 4 goals, before Gemma and Nils got two back just before half time. The teams went in with the scores 5-3 to Bromley.

Both teams got the measure of each other and the second half was a much more low scoring affair. Balham had enough shots to win the game twice over, but Luke was the only one to find the bucket – two goals bringing the game level. It wasn’t to be and Bromley got a goal with 5 minutes to go to win the match 6-5.