Manchester had to work hard for a 7-4 victory over Invicta at Surrey Sports Park. But it meant that they and Cheltenham go to the next Super 5s weekend at Lancaster in January as the only sides with two wins from two games.

The teams will meet for the first time during the Lancaster weekend, 9/10 January.

Lancaster were 4-3 down to Bristol after two periods but Bristol then lost three players in rapid succession for misconduct offences and eventually went down 14-9. Tom Curwen (5), Glen Robinson (3) and Scott Sharpe (3) were the chief Lancaster marksmen.

Sheffield were the only team to survive the first weekend of Championship 1 action without dropping a point. The picture above (by Jonathan Gray) shows Sheffield's top scorer Joel Abbott (white cap) battling with Dan Laxton, of Welsh Wanderers. Caledonia's 9-8 win over Solihull included four goals by Ed Grundy.

It was a notable weekend for Liverpool Liver Birds and Devonport Royal in women's Championship 2 at Watford. Both won their three games to top Groups A and B respectively.

Manchester Comets hit back from 3-1 down to beat Birmingham 7-6, including five goals from Isabel Larder. See Results page for all the details from Watford.

After drawing their game in Division 1, the re-match of Sheffield and Caledonia at Surrey Sports Park today was guaranteed to be close. So it proved, Sheffield winning 8-7.

Key to the victory was a strong final period performance, including two outstanding goals - a back-hander from an acute angle by Joel Abbott and a shot from the arc by Elliott Kelly. 

Polytechnic staged a remarkable late rally to steal a 10-10 draw with Team Northumbria in men's Championship 1 at Surrey Sports Park.

Northumbria seemed to be cruising with a 10-5 lead with just four a half minutes remaining. A John Bright goal launched the London club's recovery - and more scores followed with less than two minutes remaining from Miguel Ardid, Chris Icely and Lorenzo Cacciola.

With 22 seconds left, Poly won possession and called a time-out. It was the chance Icely needed to score an equaliser with the coolest of lobs just five seconds from the end.

In the Super 5s, Cheltenham completed their second win of the day - 12-10 against Lancaster. It was 7-7 at the halfway stage, but the match turned in Cheltenham's favour when they moved 10-7 ahead in third period with goals by Mike Thomas, Mark Banwell and Adam Legge.

City of Manchester's winning run continued with a 9-2 defeat of Bristol Central.

Samantha Capparelli, of Devonport, was too strong for women's Championship 2 defences at Watford. After helping herself to ten goals in a 21-1 romp against Penguin Rockhoppers, she bagged another eight in a far more competitive 13-11 win over Southampton.

Birmingham were never ahead against Polytechnic but snatched a point late on when Hannah Turnbull's fourth goal clinched a 9-9 draw. Andrea Norris's five goals earned English Roses a 7-5 win against Leeds Hammerheads.

Solihull took the step up to men's Championship 1 in their stride at Surrey Sports Park today, defeating Croydon Amphibians 14-10, including four goals by Jordan Elliot and two apiece for Peter Farkas, Phil Powell and Matt Kelly.

Sheffield's 8-5 success against Welsh Wanderers featured four goals by Joel Abbott while Caledonia were too sharp for Worthing, winning 14-7.

Lucy Shaw's two goals in the space of 17 seconds during the final period grabbed a 4-3 win for Liverpool Liver Birds against Manchester Comets in Group A of Women's Championship 2 at Watford today.

In Group B, Southampton were 4-1 down against English Roses but goals by Michelle Foulks (2), Katy Cutler (2), Jo Davies and Aimee Dannan turned the tables and set up a 7-6 win.

Cheltenham launched the men's Super 5s campaign with a 9-7 victory over Invicta at Surrey Sports Park today.

The champions were 9-4 up before their opponents rallied in the final period. Earlier, goalkeeper Sam Legge saved two penalties for Cheltenham; there was also a superb penalty save by Invicta's Ben Alcorn.

The business end of the British League season gets under way tomorrow with men's Super 5s and Championship 1 starting at Surrey Sports Park, Guildford, and women's Championship 2 at Watford (see fixtures pages for details).

A reminder that Rule 5.1 (teams to comprise 11 field players and two goalkeepers) is not applied in BWPL this season. In other words, clubs are free to select one specialist goalkeeper and 12 field players.

As before, the Super 5s feature a maximum of one time-out per team per quarter, with a five-minute interval at halftime. All remaining fixtures continue with two time-outs per team at any time; and two-minute intervals between periods.