Oxford Hawks men slogged out a 4-4 draw with Brighton & Hove in atrocious conditions at Banbury Road North on Saturday.

Hawks felt they should have taken three points from the South League Premier Division 1 game but paid the penalty for a shocking 20-minute spell in the first half which saw them concede three soft goals to reach half-time 4-2 down.

Brighton were uncompromising in midfield and finished clinically, punishing some elementary errors and in the end Hawks were happy to settle for a point.

Hawks put in a much tighter performance in the second half and created two excellent goals to pull back the arrears, but could not fashion a winner.

Hawks' scorers were Alex Norman (2), regular scorer Sebastian van den Berg and Ed Baldock.

Oxford University recorded one of their best wins of the season with an excellent 3-1 victory at Chichester.

Premier Division 2 leaders Banbury ensured they would be top of the tree at Christmas with a hard fought 2-0 win over struggling Eascote, thanks to two first-half goals from Adrian Simons and Matthew Bull.

Epsom created the first chance, forcing man-of-the-match Phil Smith into a cracking double save.

In the 15th minute, good movement from Richard Foreman and Simon Boardman created room for Simons, who rounded the keeper and smashed the ball high into the net.

Captain Bull doubled the lead when his drag flick from a short corner rocketed in.

Bottom-of-the-table Rover Oxford crashed 8-0 at home to high-flying Tulse Hill & Dulwich in Premier 2.

A nasty eye injury to defender Steve Fletcher early in the first half did not help proceedings, while debutants Rich Gale and Ed Huttley put in some solid performances.

City of Oxford, missing their best two strikers, drew 3-3 at Wokingham in MBB&O Division 1 after having to battle back from two goals down.

They were two down in the first 12 minutes but pulled one back with a short corner through John Butt.

In the second half, City equalised when Andy Bell followed up a rebound.

With four minutes to go, Wokingham scored again but from the best move of the match, and good play on the right by Martin James, up popped Bell on the right post to level it up again.

Other scores: Havant 2nd 9, Oxford Hawks 2nd 2; Banbury 2nd 0, West Hampstead 2nd 3; Hawks 3rd 1, British Airways 2nd 4; Banbury 4th 4, Staines 4th 2; Eastcote 4th 1, Hawks 4th 3 (M White, R Venables, J Black); City 2nd 1 (A McDonald), Rover Oxford 2nd 7; Bicester 3rd 2, City 3rd 6 (T Pinnington 3, B Hudson 2, C Robinson); Wallingford 4th 7, Hawks Fledglings 2 (T Bennett 2); Eastcote Vets 5, Hawks Falcons 1 (M Crampton-Smith); Southampton Trojans 2nd 2, City Bulls 5 (D Galbraith 2, P Scragg, D Oakley, A Bowen).