Quins B deny UCC a winning start

Cork Harlequins B’s dramatic late comeback gave them their first points of the season and denied UCC a winning start to life under Neil Welch in a gripping 3-3 draw at Harlequin Park today. Credit is due to the hosts for keeping their heads to find two goals in the last seven minutes that saw them come back from 3-1 down. But College will be kicking themselves for the late implosion which saw them relinquish what seemed a comfortable-looking winning position. What would have been marked down as a lop-sided relegation encounter last term (Quins B won both games with ease) attracted far more interest this time around. Most of that was focused on how the students would fare, having seen their squad undergo a major overhaul during the summer following the appointment of Welch.

And although the hosts had two games under their belt while College were lining out for the first time this term, it was the students who settled to their task quicker. Carl d’Alton had to be sharp in the Quins goal as Stephen Sweetnam and Roger Gray rained in shots, but it took a full 35 minutes for the deadlock to be broken. That strike came when Andy Gray’s drag-flick found its way in for a 1-0 lead at the break, an advantage doubled within seconds of the restart as Mark Welch swept home after Stephen Sweetnam had pickpocketed the Quins defence and played him in. An enforced switch of goalkeeper at half-time saw Conor Shemeld replace Kieran Healy between the sticks for College, and the youngster’s first task was to pick the ball out of his net, Darren Farrell’s 44th-minute drag zinging into the top left corner for 2-1. A flurry of green cards – for Quins’ Farrell and Eddie Gash and College’s Graham Catchpole and Mark Barry – characterised the periods either side of the break, as tempers flared on both sides. But College were first to rise above the nasty undercurrent. Phil Sweetnam blasted a first-time shot against an upright, the rebound just evading Welch, before Catchpole’s show-and-go giving him the space to find David Mills, who cut in from the left to slot past d’Alton at his near post on 50 minutes. A yellow card for Jay Muller didn’t seem to thwart College’s ambition despite their two-goal lead, d’Alton producing the save of the day when getting his stick onto a goal-bound Stephen Sweetnam drag. But the desire for more goals was to eventually undo College, who will learn a harsh lesson from how they handled the final minutes. Stephen Wolfe’s corner blast reduced the arrears to 3-2 on 63 minutes to set up a nervy finale, but College dropped off Quins thereafter and gave up cheap possession as the hosts smelled blood.

An equaliser seemed to be a near-inevitability, and it duly arrived two minutes from time, Hugh Kelly converting a rebound after College failed to clear their lines following a messy short corner breakdown. Elsewhere, Cork C of I had just 11 players to Limerick for a clash with Catholic Institute, where the champions hit 11 goals last term. But they found the going much tougher this time around against a well-organised Rosbrien outfit, Stephen Parker and Nick Burns on target as the presumably exhausted visitors ground out a 2-0 win. Back in Cork, Bandon needed an Ali Smith strike seven minutes from time to get their first points of the season in a scrappy 2-1 win over C of I B. Edgar Rice’s drag put them in front at Garryduff, only for Peter Catchpole to equalise after Andrew Daunt had shredded the Bandon cover. But a corner switch to Smith late on decided matters in favour of the westerners. Further afield, Pembroke’s passage to the last 16 of the EuroHockey League was confirmed as Rotterdam ended Kelburne’s interest in the competition with a 6-0 win. Glenanne’s tenure in the competition is also over after they were routed 6-1 by Polish kingpins Grunwald Poznan, though their colourful and boisterous fans left a lasting impression in Barcelona.