Brothers Andrew and Roger Gray once again saved their best for Belfield as UCC won their first ever national senior club title in men’s hockey with a rousing 3-1 Irish Hockey Trophy final victory over Raphoe yesterday.
In 2009, Andrew’s hat-trick helped Cork Church of Ireland stun Pembroke Wanderers 5-1 in an Irish Junior Cup final at the UCD venue. And the College captain nailed drag-flicks at the start of each half here to send the students on their way.
Belfield has also been a happy hunting ground for younger sibling Roger. A member of the C of I side in 2009, he also scored the goals to give Cork IT their first inter-varsity title there in 2010 and hit a cracker from play yesterday, after being played in by Cian Kavanagh, to seal victory.
While the Gray brothers took the goalscoring plaudits, UCC also had goalkeeper Kieran Healy to thank for a string of superb saves to keep their goal intact until the Donegal outfit scored from a penalty stroke late on.
It also served as redemption for Neil Welch’s side, having lost last year’s final 2-1 to South Antrim, who they saw off in the semi-finals this time around.
Elsewhere, Galway side Greenfields claimed the women’s IHT title after Neasa McGettigan’s short corner bullet gave them a 1-0 win over Omagh.
Kilkenny, featuring a couple of ex-UCC players, endured a miserable day at the Irish Hockey Challenge finals, as both their men and women fell at the final hurdle.
The women went down 4-2 to Botanic while the men, who included ex-College players Danny Mulligan and James O’Reilly in their ranks, matched Ballynahinch all the way until a four-goal blast inside 10 second-half minutes did for them.
Meanwhile, Monkstown endured a weekend to forget after they were pipped to two trophies in heart-wrenching fashion. The Dun Laoghaire outfit needed just a draw from Saturday’s final Leinster league encounter with Glenanne to claim a first title in 30 years.
But the Tallaght side eked out a 3-1 win at Rathdown to retain their title, a sixth for them since 2000 and all the more remarkable given they have done so without a recognised drag-flicker.
Monkstown had a chance to atone for the league let-down as they faced down Pembroke in the Mills Cup final 24 hours later, only to be undone on penalty strokes after a 3-3 thriller.
Railway Union were held to a 2-2 draw by Hermes which handed UCD – 1-0 victors over Old Alex – the women’s Leinster league title by virtue of winning more games, after they finished level on points with Railway.
Men’s Irish Hockey Trophy final
UCC 3 (A Gray 2, R Gray) Raphoe 1 (R Patterson);
Men’s Irish Hockey Challenge final
Ballynahinch 4 (M Graham 2, D Ross, D Bolton) Kilkenny 0;
Women’s Irish Hockey Trophy final
Greenfields 1 (N McGettigan) Omagh 0;
Women’s Irish Hockey Challenge final
Botanic 4 (A Nolan, R Quirke, C McCullough 2) Kilkenny 2 (C Lawlor, L Darling).