IT'S THE biggest game of hockey on the south coast in years - Hamble v Trojans, a match with massive implications at the top of the Hampshire/Surrey Regional League.
If Trojans win Saturday lunchtime's Satchell Lane derby, they will virtually seal the championship.
But, if their unbeaten record is shattered, Hamble will strengthen their claims for a play-off clinching runners-up spot.
With four more matches to play (compared with their rivals three), Trojans can afford to lose - and still waltz to the championship.
But, having won 16 of their 18 games, Trojans want to finish unbeaten champions.
"We'd all like to see Hamble go up alongside us - they are a very talented side.
"But there will be no favours coming their way.
"We want to be crowned undefeated champions and write a niche for ourselves in the South League records," said Trojans skipper Campbell Williams.
Hamble, thirsting to avenge a 3-2 defeat at Stoneham Lane in November, have scored 48 times in eight successive wins.
Former Hamble coach Lyndsay Hilton and 18-goal son Paul, who played for the Old Boys from 12 years of age until he moved to London to play Premier League hockey with Hampstead & Westminster, will be making nostalgic returns to Satchell Lane.
The leading pair both scored important weekend wins - Trojans beating Epsom 2-0 and Hamble hammering Winchester 7-1 at King's.
Trojans victory did Hamble a massive favour, pushing Epsom down to third spot and two points behind. "It was a nervy display. Not pretty, but a game we deserved to win," Lyndsay Hilton reflected.
Epsom rattled the Trojans upright from a penalty corner but it was Trojans who dictated the terms for long periods, with Duncan Stewart and Colin French twice denied before Wayne Shepherd put the Stoneham lads ahead.
It was a trademark, oft repeated Shepherd drag flick goal as well.
A Chris Wiseman injection from the left led to Shepherd's low shot beating goalkeeper David Civil, whose agility kept Epsom in the game.
Hilton hit the top of the Epsom bar before half-time and, five minutes after the break, Wiseman's individualist second settled it.
Collecting the ball outside of the Epsom D, the shaven-haired Wiseman cleverly side-stepped several challenges before hoodwinking Civil to make it 2-0.
Epsom seldom looked like retrieving the situation and, but for Civil, both the livelier French and Hilton might have added to the tally.
Hamble were unstoppable, crushing Winchester 7-1 to leave the city club nursing wounds of 18 goals conceded in three successive defeats.
"Probably the most controlled Hamble performance I've seen since I became coach last season," purred Wael Badawi.
Egyptian international Hamoza led the way with a four-goal salvo - including a first-half hat-trick of stunning reverse-stick shots - added to which Olympic team-mate Ezz converted a penalty flick, awarded after Craig Falkingham had felled Duncan Marsh.
Rory Marsh added a fifth before Steve Barber won a second flick, only for Ezz to smash his shot against the Winchester crossbar.
Paul Barber added a sixth before Peter Rowlands scored Winchester's consolation goal from a penalty corner.
But Hamble, oozing confidence, rounded things off with the seventh and final goal.
Hamble and Trojans have been kept apart in the quarter-finals of the England Hockey's Harrold Trophy on March 13.
Hamble's reward for a thumping 10-0 win over Telford & Shifnal is a home tie with South Premier Division 2 side Staines.
Trojans, easy 9-3 winners against Midlanders Finchfield on Sunday, visit BBHC - Bexleyheath & Belvedere, a mid-table side in the Kent/Sussex Regional League.
WOMEN'S ROUND-UP:
WITH a nine-point lead over Letchworth, Southampton look at good bet to retain their newly found EHA Premier League, Division 3 berth next term.
Letchworth are anchored to the basement with only one win in 15 games and are hot favourites to fill the solitary relegation slot at the end of the season when Division 3 is regionalised.
But Southampton had to graft hard for their point from a fiery 1-1 draw with Aldridge in unpleasant, wintry conditions in the Midlands.
They fell behind to a fourth minute Kerry Tayor penalty corner for Aldridge, but fought back to level through Rebekah Day after Jo Faulkner's key interception and lay-off.
Southampton spurned a golden chance to steal the lead when Sue Crowley's penalty flick was beaten out and, right on the break, the same player had a goal disallowed.
Tempers were frayed and green cards were branded in a tense second period, but Southampton did enough to secure another precious point towards their survival goal.
Trojans remain one point above the Premier Division 1 drop zone after a 4-1 defeat at Olton & West Warwicks.
A double Lucilla Wright strike - one from a penalty corner - gave the West Midlanders a 2-0 lead, which Lisa Shepherd improved before Nadine Devereux raised Trojans' hopes with eight minutes remaining.
But, as Trojans pushed forward, Mandy Gatherer struck a fourth for Olton.
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