The new hockey season got under way at the National Sports Centre on Saturday, with Budgies and Longtails making winning starts to their league campaigns.

Jasmine Patterson scored four goals, including a first-half hat-trick as Budgies thrashed Bluebirds 11-0 in the day’s first game. Jaselle Smith started the rout with a field goal after ten minutes, and her side scored regularly and often from then on. Amy Fox doubled the lead seven minutes later, before Patterson bagged three in quick succession.

Five goals to the good at half-time, Budgies went one better after the break, with Patterson adding her fourth, and her side’s sixth. Fox then got her second, Francesca Cacace scored twice, then Milan Wall-Burgess and Erica Parsons got in on the action.

Longtails, meanwhile, beat Canaries 4-0, with Tara Boylan, Rose Simmons, Connie Betts and Louise Boylan scoring the goals.