The latest round of fixtures in the East Hockey League brought far better fortunes for the clubs of Welwyn Garden City and Potters Bar.

Welwyn's men travelled to Shefford & Sandy anxious to get a first win in Division Two South West and kick start their season.

And they started brightly with strong attacking play and Bryn Evans aerials setting Hashim Awan, debutant Alex Evershed and Nate McIntyre free to attack.

However, the home side started to look increasingly dangerous on the counter-attack and after winning a number of penalty corners, they found their way through although less than convincingly.

WGC rallied with Dan Hatt, Max Davies, Callum Burr and Nate Last becoming more influential in the middle and eventually, the pressure paid from a penalty corner of their own.

The flick from Evans was well saved but Hatt was on hand to put the rebound in. 

The Welwyn defence of James Lutrario, Evans, Pete Mullens, Dan White and keeper Dan Klinger had to stand firm against more penalty corners to get through to half-time level at 1-1.

And the second half began to resemble a game of basketball with play going from one end to the other very rapidly.

The winner came thanks to Last's quick thinking after a scramble in the D following another saved penalty corner.

And they kept their heads to see off a last-minute corner and secure a 2-1 victory.

They host Bishop's Stortford next.

The ladies bounced back from defeat to draw 1-1 with Saffron Walden in Division Two South West.

With some excellent linking passing from Holly Butramis-Gair and midfielders Mel Evans and Ruby Sanderson, Welwyn dominated the play throughout the first half.

Youngster Connie Dykes made her first-team debut and deservedly earned herself joint player of the match with Sanderson, thanks to some speedy attacking runs.

One of these on the stroke of half-time gave the ball to forward Anna Geaves who smashed it home.

They conceded a goal shortly after the break but there was still plenty of positives.

In her final game of the season before heading off travelling, Roisin Leahy contributed some brilliant banana runs but was prevented any further goals by strong defence.

A frantic final 10 minutes meant the Welwyn defence had to dig deep to prevent shots on target, but they kept calm under pressure to keep the score at 1-1.

After going without a single goal last week, Potters Bar found lots of similar scores this week.

The men's first-team travelled to Saffron Walden with just 10 men but still came away with their first point of the season in a 2-2 draw, Mark Turpin getting both the goals.

Warren Edmondson and Tony Sayers scored in another 2-2 draw, that for the seconds at home to Harpenden, and it was the same story as the thirds tied with Royston, a team that had not previously dropped any points.

Aryan Walia got the goals in that one.

The fourths snapped the the run of draws, and also secured their first win of the season, with a 3-1 success over Saffron Walden. Andy Latham got two and Gareth Butcher one.

The ladies had a bye week.