While many of us will be celebrating April Fool’s Day on the first day of April, Ely City Hockey Club may be celebrating for another reason.

The month of March has proved rather unsuccessful for the club so far - with all of the club’s sides failing to find the net a fortnight ago - and their ill fortune continued last weekend as all five sides in action fell to defeats.

Ely men’s first team’s miserable month continued in Division Three North West thanks to St Neots 1sts who pipped them 3-2.

The firsts were without a win in March prior to their clash with St Neots, and a thrilling encounter saw the visitors take the lead before Ely capitalized on some sloppy home defending to slot an equaliser.

St Neots regained the lead through Joe Derby, before missing their opportunity to go two goals to the good after missing a penalty stroke.

Ely couldn’t get going in the second half, with St Neots eventually finding their third goal through Derby’s second goal of the afternoon.

The hosts were given a glimmer of hope 10 minutes from time when they reduced the arrears, but it was too little, too late for the city side, who now trail Cambridge University 3rds in second by three points.

Ely’s second side will also want this month - and this season - to end after another heavy defeat to Cambridge Nomads last weekend.

The already-relegated 2nds’ 5-0 defeat to the Nomads means they have now conceded 11 goals in their two fixtures in March, and a whopping 117 overall this season.

All of Ely’s ladies’ sides experienced defeat last weekend, with their firsts losing narrowly to runaway Division Three North West leaders Cambridge University 3rds.

Ely’s 2-1 loss - only their fifth defeat this season - means they now trail fourth-placed St Ives 2nds by five points ahead of their clash with Leadenham 1sts on Saturday.

The ladies’ 2nd team lost 5-0 for the second successive weekend in their Division Four North West (South) encounter with Cambridge South 1sts.

In the same division, Ely’s thirds also came up against Cambridge South opponents, but were beaten 8-0 by the Cambridge club’s second team.

The thirds, who field a side composed of a mixture of youth and senior players, will be hoping to end their season on a high with victory over Cambridge City 5ths on Saturday.