Boyle’s cracking goal shatters Harlequins

CORK Harlequins’ challenge for the EBS Women’s Club Championships began badly at Belfield last night when they were on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline against Pegasus in Pool B.

In what was a very close game throughout, it was only Arlene Boyle’s unstoppable shot from a 17th-minute short corner for Pegasus which separated the two sides at the end.

It was a disappointing start for the Cork side, who had quite fancied their chances of making the final of this competition next weekend, but they still have games against Loreto (at 10 am today) and Randlestown (noon tomorrow) to try and retrieve the situation.

In the meantime, Cork Church of Ireland opened their campaign with an excellent 1-0 win over Ballymoney, with Grace Young scoring the winner in the 39th minute.

C of I now go into today’s vital clash with Hermes in the hope they can get any sort of result which would set them up for a potential pool-winning clash with Railway Union tomorrow.

Elsewhere, there was a tremendous game between Hermes and Railway Union to kick the competition off yesterday afternoon, with Hermes eventually coming off best by 6-3 in this Dublin derby.

Molly Powers was the Hermes heroine with a hat-trick, while Mary Logue, Catriona Carey and Kristin Farrell scored the others.

Railway’s goals came courtesy of Smyth, Dooley and Dillon.

In the second game of the day between Loreto and Randlestown, the Dublin side came out 3-0 winners with goals from Sarah Scott, Cathy McKean and Jess Lynch.

With a win already under their belt that means the clash with Harlequins this morning represents a much bigger challenge for the Cork side, who will have to rely on all their experience to try and get the win they need to keep their hopes alive.