LADIES HOCKEY

ARDROSSAN's title hopes suffered a setback on Monday as they went down 2-1 away to Clydesdale Western away on Monday night, two days after defeating GHK 1-0 at home.

Saturday's game saw the hosts secure a hard-fought three points for the Ardrossan girls on Saturday as they aimed to keep up their title challenge.

They got behind the GHK on countless occasions but found no way past a very agile GHK goalkeeper. Their dominance was rewarded when Fiona Matthews burst through the GHK defence to hit a powerful shot. Amanda Stewart was the first to react to the rebound from the goalkeeper to slot home.

Despite shots from Tara Mair, Daniela Young and Fiona Matthews, the girls couldn’t add to the scoreline.

The second half was totally dominated by Ardrossan and on the rare GHK attack, Gill Jack and Eilidh Smith, Kirsty Dunlop and Laura Mackie, in particular were in commanding form in defence.

Lauren Stevenston and Linny Fisher on the wings were marauding up the flanks, sending in teasing crosses not to be accepted by the strikers.

During this pressure, Tara Mair and Lauren Stevenston were unlucky to have goals disallowed for minor infringements. Player of the match was Gill Jack in the centre of defence for her superb defending and vintage display of passing,

Defeat against a strong Clydesdale side considerably dented Ardrossan's title hopes.

The visitors started the match brightly and were causing the Clydesdale defence all sorts of problems with the pace of Daniela Young and Linny Fisher in particular.

The pressure paid off when Ardrossan were awarded a penalty flick after an infringement on the line by a Clydesdale defender. Kirsty Blackstock made no mistake from the spot to put the Ardrossan girls one up. The game ebbed and flowed after that with chances being created at both ends. Fiona Matthews, Daniela Young and Tara Mair all had chances but couldn’t extend the lead. Just before the break, Clydesdale took advantage of a rare mistake in the Ardrossan defence to equalise.

Ardrossan couldn’t find the same consistency in the second half as Clydesdale powered forward although goalkeeper Mhairi Dale pulled off a string of brilliant saves, including a penalty flick save.

Ardrossan’s resistance gave way with only 10 minutes to go when Clydesdale intercepted a misplaced pass from Ardrossan to score the winner from close range.

With minutes remaining, Lauren Stevenston outpaced the Clydesdale defence only to see her shot go wide.

The girls are extremely disappointed as a draw would have been enough to win the title. They now have to hope Clydesdale drop points in their remaining three games.

Player of the match was goalkeeper Mhairi Dale who was outstanding.

DARTS

THREE TOWNS DARTS LEAGUE

Results from March 14: Bar One 6-4 Elms, Bobby's 4-6 The Flask, Windy Ha A 6-4 Jack's A, Jack's' B

6-4 Cross Keys, Black Bull 6-4 Vaults, Alton 4-6 Windy 'B.

Another weird set of results this week with all the games finishing 6-4.

The Flask are the team of the week with 48 Christmas Shop Masters points.

Their player Kevin McKonney Jnr is the Snack Express player of the week with 25 points consisting of legs of 13 and 14 darts and 2 180's.

Davie"My Round" Tennant had a good night with legs of 15 and 20 darts.

League and Masters points have been updated on the website threetownsdartsleague.leaguerepublic.com