Bandon stun Quins to set up student showdown

Bandon produced the shock result of the season so far yesterday, as Amy Roycroft’s solitary strike sent them into the Munster Senior Cup final at the expense of Cork Harlequins. Quins have monopoloised this competition in modern times, winning the trophy on 12 successive occasions between 1996 and 2007, but they will now find themselves on the outside looking in on finals day for the second season in a row. They dominated this semi-final, but couldn’t find a way past a dogged Bandon side, who have reserved some of their best performances of the season for Quins. The league champions had the air of invincibility that surrounded them for so long punctured last term by UCC, who inflicted their first league defeat in eight seasons. Having also gone down 3-0 to the students this term, they struggled to shake off Bandon in their two league encounters, but paid a much higher price this time around on a great week for women’s hockey in west Cork, with two of the town’s schoolgirls sides reaching the final of the Munster Senior Schoolgirls Cup.

Those with longer memories might be able to recall the last time a Munster Senior Cup final was staged without the presence of at least one of the ‘big two’, but that is now the reality, given UCC had already seen off Cork C of I in the last eight. Indeed, it is the students who will contest the decider against Bandon, after they saw off Catholic Institute 1-0 in a controversial semi-final clash at Rosbrien. College incurred the wrath of the umpires on numerous occasions, notably when Hollie Moffett was harshly sent to the sideline for 12 minutes for a backchat offence, even though she didn’t appear to be the guilty party. But the Irish international had the last laugh, slotting the ball high into the Institute net with 10 minutes to go, following a goalmouth melée, to send College into their second consecutive final. Having lost out to a golden goal against C of I last time around, they will be keen to make amends. For their part, C of I advanced past Ashton in the plate, comfortably winning 6-0, with Julie O’Sullivan and Suzy Herbert both claiming a brace, and Sinéad Connery and Kate Humphries rounding off the scoring. Meanwhile, it was a bad day for Munster sides in the women’s ESB Irish Junior Cup, as Quins and C of I both succumbed to Leinster opposition. Quins, conquerors of Pegasus in round two, were outclassed by a Hermes side who were just too pacy and incisive, claiming a 6-1 win at Harlequin Park. The mesh of experienced players such as Carol Devine, Fiona Manning and former Quins star Jill Hodgins with youngsters Gillian Pinder, Shelley Sloan and Deirdre Duke proved an irrisistable force for the Dubliners, who converted five of their six short corner attempts. Sloan put them in front on 11 minutes, blasting home a short corner rebound, before she squared for Pinder to double the advantage off another set-piece breakdown. Despite some enterprising efforts from Kate Herbert, Ger Kehelly and Dale Burkley, Quins rarely troubled the Hermes rearguard and were largely out of sorts at corner time.

The game was ended as a contest six minutes after the break, with Devine slamming the ball to the far post for Aimee Jones O’Connor to nail a diving deflection, and the duo repeated the trick on 50 minutes to make it four. Quins gave themselves the faintest glimmer of hope with 15 minutes to go, Susan Barry crashing a corner home from the top of the circle as the hosts went back to basics. But Hermes had other ideas, with Manning forcing Deirdre Conroy into a smart save, before deflecting home her side’s fifth off Hodgins’ crash ball. And they added insult to injury with three minutes to go. Duke burned the Quins defence down the left and squared across goal for Manning, who aimed the ball back to her at the post, only to see it go in direct with the aid of an unfortunate deflection off a Quins stick. It was a similarly long day at the office for C of I, who went down 5-2 at home to Loreto, while Railway and Old Alex defeated Armagh and Galway respectively, both on 3-1 scorelines, to make it an all-Leinster semi-final lineup. With Quins crashing out of the men’s ISC, it is left to Cork C of I’s junior men to carry the candle for Munster in the primary national competitions, with all of the rest of the province’s rspresentaives now out of contention. However, Catholic Institute’s men and women are both in the semi-finals of the Irish Trophy, while Fermoy and Mallow are at the same stage in the women’s Irish Challenge. Meanwhile, C of I closed the gap on leaders Quins to three points in Division One without having to hit a ball in anger, as they were given a walkover by UL.