Men s hockey Blueharts resumed their season after the Christmas break with an impressive 4-2 win at home to Bury St Edmunds. Harts came out of the blocks hard and pressurised the Bury goal for the first 20 minutes or so. It was Ashley Hammond who got in f

Men's hockey

Blueharts resumed their season after the Christmas break with an impressive 4-2 win at home to Bury St Edmunds.

Harts came out of the blocks hard and pressurised the Bury goal for the first 20 minutes or so.

It was Ashley Hammond who got in first, following up from a Colin Burnell drag flick to slot the ball hard past the stranded goalkeeper.

Minutes later, Hammond found himself following up another shot on the Bury goal. This time the ball came back out at shoulder height and with his back to goal he reverse stick volleyed it into the top left corner to register his second - a truly spectacular goal!

Bury put up a fight and a good counter attack of their own resulted in a penalty stroke when Danny Fair brought down his man inside the circle.

The penalty was put away and gave the opposition the boost they needed.

Harts took their foot off the pedal and were punished for it just before half time as cheap turnover of possession resulted in another counter attack and Bury goal.

After the break, good midfield play resulted in John Sapsed neatly scooping the ball past the diving keeper to give Harts back the lead.

Matt Gardner received a yellow card for a bad tackle 15 minutes from time but Harts held on with only 10 men with keeper Will Pugh performing well.

When Harts were restored to their full complement, they began to dominate once more. Jimmy Lewis scored their fourth from a well-rehearsed short corner routine, firing the ball hard into the bottom corner.

The seconds gained a well-deserved point after a long trip to the Essex coast to play Southend.

Despite taking the lead through Dan Drew and a second from Michael Weeks, they could not hold out against mounting pressure.

Two second-half goals meant they left with honours even - a great team effort with depleted resources.

Two goals from Ian Heywood could not stop Letchworth losing by the odd goal in five to Shefford and Sandy.

Other scores: Letchworth II 1 (Mason) Royston 2, Letchworth III 1 (James Babcock) Bishop's Stortford IV 2, Letchworth IV 2 (Jack Fraser, Tony Major) Shefford and Sandy II 3, Letchworth V 1 Royston IV 0, Letchworth VI 0 Bishop's Stortford VI 5.

Stevenage began the second half of their league campaign with a disappointing 6-1 home defeat by Broxbourne.

In a game marred by niggly challenges, Stevenage looked bright in the first 10 minutes and created a couple of openings.

In the 12th minute a swift counter attack by Broxbourne resulted in their opening goal. Then, a few minutes later, it was two which really put Stevenage up against it.

In the second half, Stevenage pulled one back through Henry Robinson but the quality of play dropped; challenges which flew in from every angle gave the officials lots of work to do. Stevenage were caught on the counter attack, giving Broxbourne the openings they needed to increase their goal tally.

In the final 10 minutes, things turned from bad to worse when an off-the-ball incident resulted in several players confronting each other from both sides.

Jon Oliver was red carded and a Broxbourne player sin binned.

Other scores: Welwyn Garden City 3 Stevenage II 0, Stevenage III 4 Welwyn Garden City III 2, Stevenage V 4 Rickmansworth IV 4, Winchmore Hill and Enfield V 4 Stevenage VI 0.

MBDA won 2-1 against West Herts fifths and gained revenge for a heavy defeat in the reverse fixture.

They went ahead with their first short corner, a low and powerful shot from Paul Lawman.

Lawman added a second from an acute angle through the goalkeeper to put MBDA 2-0 up at half time. West Herts were spurred into action and grabbed a consolation goal midway through the second half.