Harlequins prevail after thriller to leave Kingston ‘very proud’

AFTER a week in which they created a huge number of chances, though failing to take most of them, Cork Harlequins finally hit top gear in Prague yesterday when they put on their best scoring display of the week to secure promotion for Ireland in the European Clubs Championships.

After a thrilling 3-3 draw with Ukraine Cup winners Kolos Sakvoia, the Cork side eventually won 4-1 on penalty stokes and their victory means that this year’s Irish Cup winners Glenanne now play in the ‘A’ division next year.

It was, according to Quins manager Donal Kingston, the best performance of the week by the team and it needed to be because the Ukrainians were the best team they came up against.

“These were a very tough and experienced side and we had to be on the top of our game to beat them,” he said.

“We were a bit worried coming in the match that our players were a little tired after their exertions over the weekend and we were also worried about the amount of chances we were creating and not scoring goals.

“But the guys really buckled down and showed what they were made of.

‘‘We worked hard and we got the reward in the end. I’m very proud of the players for the effort they put in. They only got what they deserved,” Kingston said.

In the match itself, Harlequins opened the scoring when Dave Eakins finished a short corner move after just two minutes, but the Ukraine side equalised four minute later when they got in behind the Quins defence and beat Wes Bateman.

Five minutes before the break they went ahead when the Quins defence was caught napping, but Eakins again popped up seven minutes into the second half to finish another short corner routine.

The Cork side them took the lead when David Egner found Paul Lombard and he beat two players before finishing coolly. Kolos Sakvoia equalised just two minutes later from a deflected free and that was the goal that forced the match to penalty strokes, even though Mark Black forced a terrific save from their keeper right at the death.

Paul Lombard, Richard Gash, John Hobbs and Sean Nicholson converted each of their strokes while the Ukrainians could only score one and thus Harlequins secured their first major European success.

The Irish men’s senior hockey team were beaten 4-1 by Germany yesterday. Cork Church of Ireland player John Jermyn scored Ireland’s only goal in a game which coach Dave Passmore described as “a very disciplined performance against the World champions.”

They had only been beaten 2-1 by the Germans in the first of the two test series on Sunday.