Defending men?s champions, the Panthers, suffered a second defeat in the second week of league play.

Sunday?s 4-1 setback at the hands of Upstarts ? coming on the heels of a 3-1 loss to Rebels ? has meant a discouraging start to the new season for the young squad but Upstarts may well be the team to beat this year.

While Upstarts lost a few players from last season, they have gained heavily by bringing on board ex-South Africa player Gary Tavares.

Tavares was involved in all things good in the Upstarts first win of the season on Saturday ? scoring three of the four goals for the win ? and his link-up play with captain Neil Carroll will be important for their run at the title.

It took 20 minutes of play for Tavares to first hit the mark but the pace soon quickened as he was back for his second seven minutes later via a penalty corner.

Panthers fought their way back into the match and held off any further scoring until deep into the second half when Tavares again found the goal from open play.

Kirk Edmunds picked up the final goal for Upstarts in the dying minutes of the game while Justin Barritt answered back with Panthers lone goal thus preventing the shut-out.

In the other men?s match Police Polecats defeated Rebels 5-3.

In ladies? action Swallows A cruised to another big win on Sunday as they romped all over Canaries for an 8-0 victory.

Following a 7-0 rout of Bluebirds the week before, Swallows appear on course to steamroll to another title.

In other A play, Bluebirds beat Ravens 2-1.

Two struggling A sides ? Cardinals and Swifts ? faced off on Saturday. Both sides have lost players this year ? Cards through a number of defections while graduating Swifts players have left behind an A squad with almost every player under the age of 16.

With the teams mired 1-1 at the break, Cards took control in the second half of this match, eventually winning comfortably 4-1.

In the B Division match between the same two squads, Cards were forced to forfeit due to lack of players and Swifts picked up the three points.

In other B play Ravens edged out a 1-0 win over Wildcats.