Winchester were left to reflect on what might have been after being beaten 3-2 by Fareham in the Hampshire HA Cup semi-finals at King's School.

"Overall it was one of our best performances of the season, but we missed a hatful of chances," sighed the club's Dutch player-coach, Merijn van Willigen.

"We had in excess of ten short corners but, to their credit, Fareham countered every one of them."

Winchester got off to the best possible start with Richard Penrose setting up Alex Bennett for an early score.

But Fareham began to dominate and after 15 minutes showed their Regional Division hosts how to execute a penalty corner, with Scott Shirley equalising with a direct shot.

Goalkeeper Craig Falkingham played out of his skin, pulling off a string of fine saves.

But he could do little about the second from Aaron Walker shortly after-wards which took the sting out of Winchester.

Creditably, the city club lifted their game again -only for Moseley to hit a decisive third goal for Fareham.

Bennett clawed the final score back to 3-2 in the dying seconds, but it was too late to deny Fareham a cup final date against Havant at Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, on Monday May 6.

South Premier Divisionchampions City of Portsmouth are off to a fly-ing start in their bid for EHA National League status next season.

They beat Bath Buccaneers 4-2 in their opening play-off tie and will be on course for EHA status in October if they can win their next match at Ipswich this weekend.

Portsmouth set their pace against Bath throughout, only to find two Bobby Crutchley strikes wiping out leads forged by Ivan Boswell and Steve Turnbull.

But the fitness regime player-coach Pete Hayward has installed at City paid off as Portsmouth finished the stronger, clinching a key victory through goals by John Oliver and Boswell.