Hockey: North Harbour

A seven-goal blitz took Takapuna to a surprisingly easy win over East Coast Bays and to the top of the men's premier table.

With many teams below full strength, Takapuna, Hibiscus Coast Dairy Flat and North Shore United scored wins, leaving Takapuna a point clear of HCDF at the top of the table and Bays and United sharing third place.

Defending champions ABC battled well in going down 1-0 to the Coast, but ended the round with only Indians below them.

The ever-elusive Steve Waldron scored the goal that earned HCDF their win, which was built on strong defence from Dave Adams and Dean Child. Aaron Sowden was outstanding in goal.

Steve Earwaker and Scott Heappy scored two each for Takapuna in their 7-1 win over Bays.

After leading 4-0 at halftime, United coasted home 10-1 over Indians, Martin Taylor scoring four and Mark Stevens and Royden McWha two each.

In a minor upset in the premier women's feature match, East Coast Bays lost 3-0 to HCDF and with it their early-season lead. Juliette Mack scored twice for the Coast and Suzette Nightingale added the other, while HCDF goalkeeper Bianca Russell pulled off some crucial saves.

Desiree Watson nabbed a hat-trick for ABC in their 5-3 win over Takapuna. The win took ABC into second-equal place.

Mahurangi shut out North Shore United 5-0 for their first win, Jessica White scoring twice.