Oxford City Stars made an amazing start to their English National League South clash away to Bracknell Hornets,s coring six times in the first 14 minutes.

But the home side came back so strongly that the Stars had a few anxious moments before securing a 12-8 victory.

Oxford's first goal came when Gary Slevin knocked home the rebound following a save by Bracknell netminder Matt Cameron.

After a strike from Derek Flint, there was a figh between Stars' Danny Sturgeon and Hornets' James Cameron behind the Oxford goal.

Stars then went on a scoring run that saw goals from Dan Prachar, Flint, Darren Elliott and Scott Gough, all in just over three minutes, to put Oxford into a 6-0 lead.

If Oxford were expecting to coast for the rest of the game they were rudely awakened when Bracknell scored three goals in two minutes at the start of the second session, with one from Carl Hastings and two from former Star, James Cameron junior.

This roused Oxford again, and by the halfway mark they had scored another four themselves and the game was turning into a real shoot-out.

This batch of goals came from Slevin, Green (2) and Gough and made it a 10-3 scoreline.

Oxford again eased off and ended up conceding goals from Joe Reynolds and a powerplay effort by Carl Hastings. But they still had a comfortable advantage at the second break.

Stars conceded the first two goals of the third period to Craig Tribe and Cameron, who completed his hat-trick.

The Stars fans were getting a little nervous, but Slevin - with his hat-trick goal - restored a four-goal margin only for Matt Ovenden to score another for Bracknell.

The result was settled when Stars player-coach Prachar scored with a short-handed breakaway effort.

Oxford scorers: G Slevin 3+0, S Gough 2+2, A Green 2+2, D Prachar 2+2, D Flint 2+1, D Elliott 1+1, L Plasted 0+1.

Oxford City Zodiacs moved up to second in National Women's League South with two victories over the weekend.

Zodiacs first recorded an 8-1 win over bottom-placed Oxford University with goals from Mima Boardman (4), Amy Hadden (2), Sarah Poulter and Ali Wheeler. The University scorer was Judith Waller.

On Sunday, Zodiacs beat Basingstoke Bears 9-3. Scorers this time were Georgie Hayden (2), Charlie Richardson (2), Hadden, Poulter, Mima Boardman, Karen Featonby-Herbert and Suzie Clarke.

The University then beat Peterborough 5-4 for their first success of the campaign.

Other result - Under 14 League South: Oxford 2, Haringey 7.