Hereford are keeping up the pressure on leaders Cheltenham 2nd at the top of the West Clubs' Women's League Severn Division 1 after a 7-0 hammering of visiting Stroud.

Skipper Claire Butler fired the city side in front after five minutes with a penalty flick and with Di Feely and Butler herself adding further goals in the first half, Hereford were firmly in control at the break.

With Becky Edwards making an outstanding debut, Hereford continued to dominate proceedings in the second period.

Butler completed her hat-trick and there were strikes from Jess Lambert and Gemma Jones as the title-challengers emerged as comfortable winners.

Leominster bounced back from their defeat at Cheltenham the previous week as a hat-trick from Laura Stubbs led them to a conclusive 3-0 win over visiting Newent.

Stubbs opened the scoring within the first five minutes and added a second after the Leominster defence had done well to resist a strong period of Newent pressure.

Leominster suffered a setback with an injury to goalkeeper Jo Rusling who had to leave the field to be replaced by Cara Mifflin.

But the North Herefordshire side were not thrown out of their stride and had much the better of the second period when Stubbs completed her treble.

Ross kept pace with Gloucester 2nd for much of their match before the visitors pulled away to win 5-3.

Pauline Hemmingway equalised an early Gloucester goal to keep the scores all square at the interval.

Although Gloucester twice more took the lead after the interval, Ross hit back on each occasion with goals from Linda Davies and Amy Young.

But some slack defending allowed the visitors to score a fourth and with heads dropping in the home side, Gloucester went on to confirm their win with a fifth.

The absence of their two top goal scorers proved too much of a handicap for Hereford 2nd who went down to their first defeat of the season, 2-0 at Dursley in Severn Division 2.

Dursley took the lead after 10 minutes following a penalty corner but Hereford mounted plenty of pressure in response without being able to find a way through.

Hereford continued to dominate play after the interval and at one point had all 10 outfield players in the Dursley 25-yard area.

All this, however, came to nothing when Dursley converted another penalty corner with five minutes to go to seal their win.

Colwall, who meet Hereford in a top of the table clash on Saturday, reduced their county rivals' lead at the top to just two points after a 3-2 success against Shipton Oliffe.

Coral Handley scored twice for Colwall whose other goal came from Lucy Halligan.

Kington continue to make the pace at the top of the Mid Wales League after a 3-2 win over Abergavenny.

Alex Watson and Sherry Gore quickly opened up a two-goal advantage and, although Abergavenny pulled one back before break, Watson found the net again before the visitors reduced arrears.

Tenbury were without a game as scheduled opponents Camp Hill were unable to raise a side.