Lively Loreto maintain upperhand over Cork Harlequins

By Stephen Findlater

Cork Harlequins’ much-changed line-up endured a frustrating opening day of the women’s EY Hockey League, falling 2-0 to Loreto.

The Dubliners had pipped Quins to the EY Champions Trophy title in May and have since strengthened significantly with the arrival of Sara Twomey and Lizzie Murphy.

The Cork side, meanwhile, are in transition with Roisin Upton returning to Catholic Institute, Rebecca Barry taking a break, Emma Buckley moving to Belgium and Naomi Carroll set for knee surgery.

Nonetheless, new coach Darren Collins — taking over from long-time incumbent Stephen Dale — will have seen enough in Quins’ performance to suggest they will be a competitive force.

Sarah Clarke’s corner thunderbolt in the first half and Niamh Small’s clincher, however, meant a day one result was beyond them.

Elsewhere, Pegasus made a major statement with a 3-2 win over UCD, inflicting just the second defeat in 37 games on the students in the EYHL.

UCD were fielding seven newcomers following the departure of World Cup stars Deirdre Duke, Katie Mullan, and Lena Tice to foreign shores.

In Limerick, meanwhile, Janesboro native Upton was showing what an impact she can have for her original club as she took just six minutes to score in their thumping 5-1 win over UCC on the opening day of Munster Division One.

The students won the local league last season ahead of Insta but the result and performance suggests the pendulum has swung markedly the opposite direction.

Siobhan O’Donovan, meanwhile, got the only goal as Ashton raided Bandon for a big 1-0 win in west Cork. Belvedere got off the mark with a dramatic 3-2 win over Limerick — who only survived relegation in early September via a playoff — while Cork C of I started well with a 2-0 defeat of Waterford.

In the men’s EY Hockey League, Cork C of I’s smart half-court set-up worked for the best part of an hour as they frustrated Banbridge for long periods in Co Down.

Playing on the counter, they left precious little room for Bann to manoeuvre. In attack, they swooped to win a couple of penalty corners, one of which was upgraded to a stroke which John Jermyn nailed.

They held that lead for the guts of 50 minutes but Josh Moffett’s equaliser with nine minutes left punctured the resistance. Within a few minutes, Eugene Magee was powering home a drag-flick to put Bann ahead and Moffett made it 3-1 with four minutes left.

As such, it was a fairly deflating long road back from Ulster as they end week two with just one point from two decent performances to date. It ups the ante for next week’s date with newly promoted YMCA who lost 3-1 to Three Rock Rovers and have yet to register a point this term.

Bann lead the way alongside Pembroke Wanderers, who came from 2-0 down to Monkstown to win 4-3 with Cork men Scott Sullivan and Stephen Sweetnam on the mark for Pembroke.

In Munster men’s Division One, while it was only day one, the recent pecking order looks set for upheaval. Neither Bandon nor UCC recorded wins with reigning champions Bandon falling to a 2-1 defeat to last year’s basement side Harlequins with Dave Egner striking twice.

UCC, meanwhile, were held 1-1 at Ashton with Philip Sweetnam on the mark for the hosts in his first game since moving from C of I. Catholic Institute made a solid start to their return to the division, coming back twice to counteract David Herbert goals for C of I B via Roy Gleeson and Gary Acheson.