The East Hockey League will head into their winter break after one more full round of fixtures - and both Potters Bar and Welwyn Garden City will be wanting to finish the first half of the season strong.

The men's fourth team at Potters Bar are doing that already, having gone five for five through November, the latest a 4-1 success at Dame Alice Owen's over Harpenden in Division Six South West.

It leaves them second in the standings, five points behind Bedford but with a game in hand, and still with just the one defeat this term, that on the opening day of the season to WGC thirds.

Matthew Fretter, Matthew Afford, Harry Milton and Gabriel Banzuelo got the goals in this one.

The seconds went down by the same score away to Blueharts, Simon Kelly on target, and the firsts were the cause of their own downfall in a 5-3 loss at home to Hertford in Division One South.

They started with just eight outfield players and no goalkeeper and so it was no surprise to see them 3-0 down after 10 minutes.

They did fight back though and a double from Zahid Khan and one for Mark Turpin hinted at what might have been.

But instead they were not enough and Bar remain winless after nine outings.

The ladies had a bye week but Welwyn's girls were in action, claiming a 0-0 draw at home to Stevenage in Division Two South West.

The visitors had arrived at the Hertfordshire Sports Village fourth in the table with WGC down in ninth and the rivals served up a typically feisty battle.

Player of the match, goalkeeper Nat Granger, kept Welwyn in the game with countless saves from the strong Stevenage attackers, including an impressive dive and stick save from a short corner near the end of the game.

The first half was an even mix of play for both teams, with all players stepping up to fight for loose balls and 50-50 tackles.

Lisa Sheffield held the middle well for Welwyn, intercepting passes to prevent attacks, and although a few fouls in the D handed Stevenage some short corners, these were dealt with ably and, on occasion, countered with some of their own.

One of these resulted in Welwyn's best chance of the half, a strike from Davina Miller from the top of the circle.

The second half saw the cards arrived, the stern warnings of the umpires from earlier going unheeded.

Stevenage received three of them during the latter part of the game but unfortunately for Welwyn, they were unable to capitalise on the numerical advantage.

And they also got some of their own, Miller issued with one for stick tackling, but her defensive team-mates restructured and held strong. 

Elsewhere, the seconds drew 2-2 at Royston and the thirds completed the sequence of draws, 1-1 with Stevenage fifths.

Welwyn's men had a great 1-0 win away to Bishop's Stortford, a third win from the last four and a result that moves them up to sixth in Division Two.

The thirds drew 3-3 at home to Shefford & Sandy and there were goals galore in the result of the day, a 7-5 success for the seconds away to Hertford in Division Five.