The race for top spot remains the story of the men?s hockey league as both Panthers and Upstarts picked up wins last weekend.

The two sides are tied for first place with 20 points apiece while Chameleons, who did not play last weekend, are just one point behind the leaders.

Upstarts held off Rebels 2-1 to collect their three points on Sunday.

Rebels opened with attacking play but Upstarts answered quickly with pressure of their own culminating in a sizzling high shot into the back of the net by Marten Velk.

More pressure resulted in a series of penalty corners which eventually yielded a crafty conversion as the ball was passed well outside the D, then slipped back in to the penalty spot and deftly touched past the Rebels goalkeeper Andrew Frith, who had been making a number of good saves.

Down 2-0, Rebels found their touch at the end of the first half when Andrew Travis slipped a neat pass to his fellow forward Dave Gutteridge, who drove through a couple defenders into the Upstarts D and fired off a fierce rising shot which found the top left hand corner of the net.

Rebels searched for the equaliser just before the break as Darren Lednor came agonisingly close to touching in an angled Gutteridge shot at the left post.

The second half saw the staunch Rebels defence of Burt Rodney, Jamal Burgess, Richard Adlam and Mark Wheddon doing their stingy best ? they did not give up a thing.

But Rebels could not find the levelling goal despite fine runs by Simon Van De Weg, Travis and Gutteridge. And they were forced to accept the loss.

Meanwhile, Panthers ensured Upstarts would not run away with top spot with their 1-0 defeat of Polecats in the other men?s match.

Women?s A league play saw Ravens nab a 4-0 victory over Swifts and Cardinals pick up a 3-0 win against Bluebirds.

Cardinals came out fighting in this match, their third face-off with Bluebirds this season. In the past two meetings, each team have secured a win, so this was to be a deciding game.

Cardinals had Bluebirds on the defence from the start as Maria Pichery grabbed a goal in the opening minutes after a fine run up the field.

The second goal of the match belonged to Lesley Smith who fired on target from the top of the D.

Cardinals went into the second half 2-0 up but were still hungry for more. Their final goal came from a finishing touch by Selena Bean.

Cardinals also grabbed a key 2-0 win in the B league over Bluebirds.

Both teams ran hard in the first half of this match but neither managed to break through. Some half-time line-up adjustments and a few encouraging words saw the Cardinals hit the pitch like demons in the second half, however. Just three minutes in a pass from midfield found Megan Leitch at the top of the D and she slid the ball around the Bluebirds goalie to put Cardinals on the board.

Some hard running and a few good passes from the wings saw Leitch soon hammer home a second goal, sealing the 2-0 result.

Cardinal Shirley Smith stepped in at goal for much of the first half of this match and did an excellent job of keeping the Bluebirds out of the net.

In other B league game Orioles and Swifts drew 0-0.