Rams, who beat Tshumbas 1-0, dropped down one spot on the ladder while Tshumbas moved up one position into third spot.

The men’s hockey ladder has four teams all locked on four points each, so the teams had to be separated by goal difference.

However Rams and Vikings took it one step more and who had the highest “goal for” had to be used to separate them.

These interesting results started with last year’s premier Castletown being beaten by new team Vikings two- nil. George Carmody and Marcus Moffet did the damage scoring for Vikings.

Better players: Vikings: P Bell, B Lloyd, S Welke. Castletown: S Briggs, D McMullen, L Palmer.

Next Rams and Tshumbas did their part, with Tshumbas started strongly but unable to break the Rams senior back line.

Then Rams’ Peter Evans took control of the midfield and kept feeding the young Rams forward line who forced a short corner, which Evans converted to give Rams the match.

Better players: Rams B Florisson, P Evens, B Scully. Tshumbas: S Jones, J Taylor, M Zani

The game of the day between the top two teams Cascade and Sharks turned out to be the flop of the day, as Sharks did not have the numbers to take to the field and had to forfeit.

There will be no men’s hockey in Esperance this weekend, due the men’s country championships in Perth over the long weekend. This year Esperance is only sending one team to play in Division Two and take on: Avon, CGS, Geraldton, Roe Districts, UGSHA and WA Country. Their first game is at 11.30am. All players please note this new earlier time.

Ladder

Team P GF GA GD PT

Cascade 4 10 3 7 10

Sharks 3 6 4 2 5*

Tshumbas 4 4 3 1 4

Castletown 4 7 7 0 4

Vikings 3 5 6 -1 4

Rams 3 3 4 -1 4

Condingup 3 5 13 -8 0

*Lost point due to fine