Limerick complete journey to top tier

Limerick HC will join Fermoy in Division One of the Munster Senior League next season, after the province’s governing body opted to promote them this week. John Meyler’s side finished third in Division Two behind Catholic Institute’s second XI and Fermoy, with the latter earning the sole automatic promotion place on offer as Institute already field a side in the top tier.

But Limerick invoked the option available to them as the next-best finisher to challenge Division One’s basement side, Cork Church of Ireland, to a promotion/relegation playoff. Given C of I’s season ended a month ago and they have long since ceased training, the Munster Branch of the Irish Hockey Association’s (MBIHA) fixtures committee opted to grant Limerick automatic promotion. There will therefore again be odd numbers of nine and seven sides in the top two tiers respectively, necessitating automatic relegation for whoever finishes bottom of the pile in 2012/13. The uneven numbers arose when Belvedere opted to demote themselves from the top division in September last year. Having completed a number of successive promotions in recent years, Limerick finished three points behind Institute and Fermoy after recording nine wins from 16 games in Division 2, and were potential title winners up until the final clash of the regular season when they went down 3-1 to their local rivals at Rosbrien. Institute subsequently defeated Fermoy by the same scoreline in a title playoff in Thurles last week.