Hero Stirling’s stick-up job

LISNAGARVEY hero Philip Stirling is obviously not one for sentiment. After all he scored a hat-trick of goals with a borrowed stick in the final of the Irish Senior Hockey Cup at Belfield on Saturday.

The 22 years old international broke his favourite stick in the warm-up before the game to leave him with a crisis."I've been knocking chips off my stick all season but I expected it would last" he said, "I'd been nursing it all week and then in the warm-up it broke.

"I pulled a new stick out of the bag which had not been used before and it felt a bit lead weight. I couldn't stop a thing with it the whole game, it was a disaster."