BASINGSTOKE Hockey Club Ladies suffered a narrow defeat against Horsham which ended their hopes of promotion to the National League's for the first time in the club's history.

Clare Griffiths opened the scoring for Basingstoke, with a cracking penalty corner conversion, but Horsham responded with an equaliser.

Face masks once again demonstrated their worth as Alice Lane stopped a shot with her face, with goalkeeper Gemma Carswell saving the subsequent penalty stroke.

Horsham scored a second, but Basingstoke’s Captain Catriona Bausor retaliated with a great individual run, passing the ball across the D for Fiona Parker to score a wonderful diving goal.

Horsham scored the winner in a 3-2 victory in the final minutes.

The seconds went 1-0 down early on to the City of Portsmouth.

They equalised via Claire Bowman after good work up the right from Sarah Shearing and Esther McElvenney. Portsmouth again took the lead with a lucky deflection.

Basingstoke waited until the second half to strike again via individual skills from Bowman to complete her hat-trick in a 3-2 win which moved them up to fourth.

Promotion chasing Alton took on the Ladies 3s and Basingstoke’s Tania Bridge was first to strike via a well-rehearsed penalty corner routine, but Alton replied with a brace.

Basingstoke shifted formation to reduce the threat down the middle, and took the equaliser from a ball down the left turned back to Sarah Lemasney, whose perfect pass was deflected in by Lexi Guetschow as it finished 2-2.

Winchester visited the fourth team who took their time to warm up, conceding three goals before half time, before Jess Pritchard bundling the ball over the line for their first.

A different team after half time, Basingstoke piled on the pressure with Becky Donaldson deflecting a Sharon Holden penalty corner strike and Ulrike Maier hit the upright as they lost 3-2.

The Ladies sixths took on Fareham taking a well-deserved 3-1 win.

Basingstoke took the lead from Jasmine Payne, and despite some confident saves from Katie Wade, Fareham drew level by half time.

With more end-to-end play in the second half it was only a matter of time before Payne scored her second. Basingstoke’s final goal came from a Miranda Smith clearance to Claire Keeley who drove the D and tapped neatly round the goalkeeper.