Happy Hermes leave rivals in their wake

Hermes were the weekend’s big movers in the women’s EY Hockey League with impressive wins over challengers Ulster Elks and Cork Harlequins.

The Booterstown outfit have the league’s only 100% record after seven games and a seven point buffer ahead of the Elks — who lost further ground when they drew 2-2 with Railway Union — in second.

Their Irish internationals again did the majority of the damage; Anna O’Flanagan scored three while Chloe Watkins and Nikki Evans also found the net in the victories over Quins (3-0) and the Elks (3-1).

With Quins ending their double weekend with a 2-0 loss to UCD, they slip to seventh in a clustered middle section of the 10-team league.

Pembroke notched victories over Greenfields and Ards to move up to fourth, while champions Pegasus climb into the table’s top half for the first time after beating the student sides UCD (4-1) and UCC (3-1), the Cork girls also losing at Ards on the same scoreline.

Elsewhere, Ulster claimed an U18 and U16 boys interpros double at Garryduff, with Callum Robson and Matthew Nelson among those to have surely impressed onlooking national coach Craig Fulton.

Leinster finished second in both tournaments.

Meanwhile, hapless Munster finished the weekend without a win, although the U18s did claim a 3-3 draw with Leinster in their final game.

The Munster women’s Division 1 is Catholic Institute’s to lose at the moment as their 1-0 win over nearest rivals Bandon put them five points clear with six rounds played.

The rest of the standings bunched up even further as home advantage counted heavily in favour of the sides who had started the weekend in the bottom three.

Limerick romped to a 4-1 success over Ashton, Waterford defeated Clonakilty 3-1 with a Kristen Lyons hat-trick while Cork C of I fell to the foot of the table after losing 1-0 at Cashel/New Inn.