Men s hockey Blueharts staged a notable recovery to move clear into third place by beating West Herts 3-1. Harts could not find the net in the first half and went 1-0 down 15 minutes after the break. They showed true grit and determination to turn the gam

Men's hockey

Blueharts staged a notable recovery to move clear into third place by beating West Herts 3-1.

Harts could not find the net in the first half and went 1-0 down 15 minutes after the break.

They showed true grit and determination to turn the game around.

Captain Oliver Hammond scored a great goal from a well-rehearsed short corner move, flicking the ball hard into the bottom corner.

Another short corner was awarded soon after. Colin Burnell fired off a drag flick which was saved but new boy Simon Shorter pounced on the rebound and scored his first goal for the club.

With five minutes remaining, Shorter turned up on the far post where Hammond played a precision pass for an easy tap-in and his second of the afternoon.

The seconds produced their best display of the season to destroy high-flying Chelmsford thirds.

Michael Weeks slammed home the rebound from a corner after the initial strike.

A dubious penalty stroke was awarded to Chelmsford but San Chand kept out the shot on the stroke of half time.

Harts conceded a corner from which the visitors equalised after the break though.

Skipper James Moore rallied his troops and Harts went goal crazy. Phil Britton claimed two, Richard Hamilton fired high into the net for a deserved goal, followed by Ian Baxter and a first time strike from Ben Meyer to make it six.

Paul Stevens and Mark Russell held the midfield together and the defence, with Matt Hicks and Paul Graves again outstanding, were tireless.

Letchworth won 5-1 at Old Southendians thanks to Robbie Balsom (two), Matt Smith, Scott Apps and Kevin Sanger.

Other scores: Letch II 1 (Phil Wareing) Blueharts III 1, Luton III 0 Letch III 2 (Ben Abbott two); Letch IV 2 (Gordon Hewlett, Matt Wade) Harpenden III 1; Southgate Adelaide III 0 Letch V 2 (Mark Sheard, Nick Pye); Letch VI 4 Southgate Adelaide IV 0.

Stevenage shared the league points at Luton Town before exiting from the HA Trophy 24 hours later.

In a game which could have gone either way, Stevenage found an opening when Rob Brown and Ollie Holt made a good passing move which carved open the defence for Brown to calmly slot the ball home.

Luton woke up and put pressure on Stevenage, resulting in a goal.

The Stevenage defence looked in trouble again when Tim Dingley slid out to intercept a Luton attack. The forward attempted a flick but James Hamilton was on the line to deflect it from the top corner at the last second.

The second half saw Holt score Stevenage's second goal.

From then on Stevenage were on the back foot, with the pressure finally telling when John Mould aggravated a back injury, giving the ball to his marker and leading to Luton's second goal.

A trip to Oxford to play Rover Oxford on Sunday in the HA Trophy saw Stevenage lose a spirited encounter by the odd goal in seven.

Other scores: Stevenage II 3 (Roger Barlow, Nick Crocker, Ian Wilcock) Rickmansworth 3; Bishop's Stortford V 4 Stevenage III 1 (Andy Blaxill); Stevenage IV 9 Shefford and Sandy IV 0; Stevenage VI 1 (Scott Davies) Royston V 1.

MBDA dropped two valuable points with a 2-2 draw away at Potters Bar firsts.

They took the lead, Adrian Monks breaking away from Bar's static defence to grab the goal.

A few minutes before half time though, Bar equalised. MBDA improved in the second half, with good midfield work allowing Austin Mahoney to score what looked like the deciding goal.

Tempers flared a few minutes before the end with both sides getting a man yellow carded.

This arguably cost MBDA the game, as from the resultant free hit, they backed off sufficiently to allow Bar space to shoot through a crowd of players and grab a second equaliser.