OLD LOUGHTONIANS Hockey Club had plenty to celebrate at the weekend after their under-18 men’s team made it to the final of the National Indoor Championships after an absorbing semi-final that went right down to the wire.

The team, who had already been crowned England Hockey East Region Indoor Champions, first breezed through their pool games to top their qualifying group, winning all four games with an average of more than four goals a game.

They looked on course to make similar light work of their semi-final opponents, Havant, when they raced into a two-goal lead. However, they were pegged back to 2-2 to force penalty flicks in order to determine the victor.

In a nail-biting finale, Harry Martin, George Lilley and Matt Lewis all showed nerves of steel to find the net for Old Loughts, as Havant failed to match the local side’s perfect record.

The victory means the Chigwell team will now meet Beeston on January 31 at the Trent FM arena in Nottingham in the national final.

The U16s team, having also won the East Region Indoor Championship, were in action in the national play-offs, but they fell at the final hurdle, despite a magnificent comeback in their semi-final clash.

Victories over Beeston, Driffield and Team Bath set up an encounter with Havant. The game looked up at 5-2 down, but Loughts rallied superbly to claw back the deficit, only to see their efforts come to nothing as Havant pipped them at the post, 6-5.

Meanwhile, the success had rubbed off on the rest of the club, as the ladies’ team first drew with Barnes before smashing Aldridge 7-0 to close the season in fourth place in Division One of the Indoor National League.

The men’s second team maintained their position at the top of the Higgins London League Division One with a 3-2 win over Hampstead & Westminster, while the ladies’ second string triumphed over Chelmsford to stay top of the East Division 2SW.

Elsewhere, Waltham Forest men’s team boosted their chances of promotion with a slender 1-0 victory over Winchmore Hill.

In the team’s first game since Christmas, Forest started well, with Chris Brown breaking through into the top of the circle, forcing the keeper into a smart save, but Kris Bubnelis was on hand to sweep the ball into the roof of the net for what proved to be the only goal of the game.

Keeper Yogi Patel managed to keep Hill at bay.

After the interval, Adam Greenwood wasted several opportunities to extend the lead, but Forest managed to see out the game to get the new year off to the best possible start.

There was less good news for Forest’s ladies team as they slipped to 11th place in East Division One South after going down by four goals to Broxbourne.

The early signs looked promising for the hosts as they enjoyed plenty of possession, but the visitors scored from a breakaway goal. A defensive mix-up led to the second, which seemed to have taken the wind out of Forest’s sails. Two more strikes followed in the second half to consign the ladies to a disappointing defeat.