Crunch time for Chichester's sporting students
There are cup games ahead for some and battles at either end of the table for others.
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Hide AdChi’s men’s football twos are in a real scrap with Brunel and Roehampton at the wrong end of South Eastern 2A but picked up a 2-0 home win over Brighton’s first team to extend their unbeaten run to three since the mid-winter break.
Chichester started the game brightly and the visitors’ keeper did well to get a glove on a fierce drive after 17 minutes.
The home side went ahead following a spell of pressure in the 34th minute. Rafael Santos got on the end of a nice cut back and drilled the ball into the bottom corner.
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Hide AdDavid Mendes-Borges doubled the lead just before the interval with a crisp finish after good work from Drew Smith.
Chi had chances in the second half. The Brighton No1 denied Santos his second goal six minutes in and then was thankful a shot curled wide on the hour mark.
The home keeper tipped a shot over the bar in the 63rd minute and then palmed another round the post later on.
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Hide AdChichester will hope to get something out of their final couple of games and that their nearest rivals drop points.
The men’s ones lost 2-1 away at Birmingham in the cup and now have the play-offs to contend with for Premier South survival.
The threes lost heavily against UCL ones, the fours suffered a 4-1 defeat to Brighton and the fives drew 1-1 with Sussex.
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Hide AdThe sixes, who are second behind Surrey with games in hand, didn’t play King’s College – a waterlogged pitch got in the way. The match between the women’s second team and Brighton ended goalless.
In futsal the men’s team beat table toppers Portsmouth 7-6. The women, who were cruising at Christmas, have now dropped to second place in Premier South after consecutive defeats to Bristol and Cardiff Met.
It was a tough week for hockey. Women’s ones pushed league leaders Surrey all the way only to lose 2-1, as they did in the reverse fixture back in November. Both men’s teams lost as well but the ones have a home semi-final to look forward to next week against Brighton.
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Hide AdElsewhere, it was a pretty good week for Chi’s racquets teams.
The men’s badminton first team drew 4-4 at Sussex and it was the same scoreline for the women, who were away against Roehampton and remain second in the league.
The table-tennis team got back to winning ways after last week’s cup exit to Bristol and look a shoo-in for the league. They beat LSE 12-5.
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Hide AdChi’s women’s tennis team lost at home to Reading but men’s tennis won 8-4 up at Gosling Park against Herts and put a bit of distance between themselves and second-place Sussex. The two sides meet at Sussex in the last game of the season in a few weeks’ time.
In netball the twos, who are looking over their shoulders at the bottom two sides, beat Royal Holloway ones 44-27 in the dome and the fours defeated the same university’s third team 55-30.
The threes are in a fight with Reading for the title but lost to Brunel 53-46. The fives also have title credentials and kept their hopes of promotion alive with a 31-21 win at Brunel.
In American football, the Spitfires shut out City 18-0.