OXFORD Hawks stormed into the English National Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 victory at home to National League side Fareham on Sunday.

Playing some sparkling hockey, Hawks raced into a 5-1 lead midway through the second half with goals from Alex Williams, Matt Wood, Thom Sobey, Jack Biggs and Ted Bennett.

Although Fareham pulled two goals back in the final ten minutes, Hawks thoroughly deserved to take their place in the last eight.

The quarter-finals will be played in February.

The previous day, Hawks suffered a 2-1 defeat away to Spencer in South League Premier Division 1.

The visitors had the better of a goalless first half.

But Spencer forced them back after the break, cranking up the pressure.

Hawks’ defence was eventually breached by Spencer with two open play goals midway through the half.

Some positional reshuffling saw Hawks get back into the game, but although Biggs pulled one back from a penalty corner, Hawks had left themselves with too much to do.

Witney went top of Middlesex Berks, Bucks & Oxon Division 1 with a resounding 4-2 victory away to OMT 2nd.

Ben Moss put Witney into an early lead, but poor defending at corners saw the hosts take a 2-1 lead.

Ryan Fitz-John’s super reverse-stick strike made it 2-2 at the break.

Witney came out fired up for the second half creating a number of chances before Harry Harbage gave Witney the lead from a short corner.

With OMT tiring, Witney sealed the result when Dan Wallis played the ball into Moss, who added their fourth goal.

Oxford were left to rue numerous missed first-half chances as they went down 1-0 at Eastcote in Regional Division 1.

Poor finishing and having two perfectly good goals disallowed made for a frustrating afternoon for the visitors

Eastcote took all three points when a deflected shot looped over Oxford keeper Callum Chapman for the only score.

OTHER MEN’S RESULTS

Oxford Hawks 2nd 3 (M Janes 2, K Barnes), Aylesbury 0; Oxford Hawks 3rd 2 (O Lovibond 2), British Airways 4; Oxford Hawks 4th 5 (C Saint 2, N Mahon, J Miller, M Pickup), Wycombe 3rd 2; Oxford Hawks 5th 2 (O Bond, M Saunders-Davis); Oxford 2nd 5 (A Neville 2, J Ferrari, A Gray, D Smyth), West Hampstead 5; Oxford 3rd 3 (J Burke, K Hanspal, R Lawrence), Thame 5; Oxford 4th 5 (M Neville, S Fox, A Wynd, H Tasker, P Tappin), Eastcote 4th 0; Oxford 5th 1 (B Hudson), Gerrards Cross 2nd 1; Oxford 6th 4 (L Cadman 2, C Doherty, T Christophers), Oxford Hawks 6th 3; Oxford 7th 2 (R Harding, P Uttley), South Berks 5th 0; Oxford 8th 0, Thames 2nd 3; Oxford 9th 4 (P Cole 2, K Ahmed, M Tappin), Aylesbury 5th 0; Oxford Hawks 7th 1 (O Webb), Wallingford 4th 2; Oxford Hawks Falcons 3 (S Smith, J Kaluza, T Henman), Guildford Gondoliers 3; Witney 2nd 3 (L Smith 2, T Hobbs), Reading 5th 2; Sonning 5th 6 Witney 3rd 1 (D Edwards).