15 not out for Quins queens

The burning desire to not be among the first team to lose a women’s Munster Senior League title in 15 years once again worked wonders for Cork Harlequins, as they routed UCC 4-1 in a title playoff at Garryduff on Saturday. Fear of relinquishing their title has been a serious motivating factor for Quins in recent years, even as UCC, and latterly, Catholic Institute, have closed the gap on the Farmer’s Cross outfit. For College, it was a bitter pill to swallow, losing in a playoff for the second year in succession, having matched Quins blow for blow in the league for the past two seasons.

But the students’ failure to defeat Quins in four meetings this term ultimately speaks for itself. They took an early lead this time around, stand-in skipper Ali O’Regan mugging Sinead McCarthy on the left before careering into the circle and finishing past Amy O’Neill at the second attempt. But that was as good as at got for College, as Karen Bateman pulled Quins level two minutes later from a bullet corner strike, before dancing into the circle and bouncing the ball past Karen Olden in the UCC goal. And they could have been even further ahead, had Cliona O’Connor not seen her batted short corner rebound strike an upright. Quins were dominant throughout, as proven by a short corner count of 13 to two,and it was always a question if when rather than if they would put the game to bed. McCarthy duly obliged by putting away two corners in the second half — both identical switch moves with Bateman. College had a glorious chance to reduce the deficit late on, when Vicky O’Sullivan’s lovely square pass put Ali O’Connor in the clear. But the former Ireland U16 star, playing in midfield in Julia O’Halloran’s absence, had no support as she bore down on O’Neill, who narrowed the angles sufficiently to force O’Connor to shoot just wide. It was nonetheless a deserved 15th straight title for Eddie Gash’s troops, and their pretenders must continue to wait for the day when the evergreen Bateman – the only player involved in all 15 triumphs – and Rachael Kohler put their sticks away. Quins now have an Irish Hockey League semi-final clash with Pegasus to look forward to in a fortnight. Their men’s side haven’t made it that far, but did end their IHL campaign on a positive note on Saturday. They came from behind to defeat Banbridge 3-2, ending the Ulstermen’s faint hopes of returning to the semi-finals. Quins opened the scoring in the 32nd minute after Gareth Lennox produced an outstanding save from Dan Hobbs’ drag only for Jason Black to rebound and square the ball to brother Mark to finish.

But Bann were back on terms inside a minute when teenage sensation Josh Moffett deflected high from Ross McCandless’ drag-flick and the Co Down side were ahead in the 48th minute when Dermy Reay played in Simon Magowan for 2-1. With Corinthian 3-1 up on Instonians at the time, the intriguing prospect of a playoff being required to separate Bann and the reds for the last semi-final spot was on the cards, with the sides level on points and goal difference. But Bann’s dreams went up in smoke when Darren Farrell applied a lovely deflection to John Hobbs’ slide-rule pass from 35-metres out to level with ten to go, not long after David Egner had somehow failed to poke a loose ball home from less than a foot from the goal-line. Nonetheless, the winner arrived in the dying seconds. A big ball came across from the right and seemed destined for Paul Lombard, only for a huge shout to come from Lee d’Alton to leave it. And he backed up that confidence with a stunning first-time thunderbolt, to give Quins their second win of the campaign. Corinthian had therefore done enough at home to Instonians, winning 4-2, to seal the second semi-final berth behind already-qualified Pool A leaders Pembroke Wanderers, whose clash with Monkstown finished scoreless. Corinthian player-coach Andrew Cronje and Conor Motyer had the reds cruising, the latter finishing after some dazzling skills from Venezuelan maverick Lucas Piccioli. Inst responded with former Irish international Mark Irwin rebounding off the post, before Darren Kimfley’s brace — sandwiching a Chris Kirk effort for the visitors — kept Corinthian safe.

In Pool B, Timmy Cockram won his drag-flicking battle with John Jermyn to ensure Lisnagarvey will fly the flag for Ulster in the last four, following a 6-3 win over Cork C of I. Cockram hit the net four times to Jermyn’s three, with Peter MacDonnell adding a brace to secure a bonus point for ‘Garvey, which ensured top spot in the pool and family bragging rights for their Cork-born midfielder Jason Lynch over younger sibling Karl, who lined out for C of I. Glenanne have their fans a major scare as they fell 3-1 behind to Annadale with 12 minutes to go, but the hosts amazingly scored five times thereafter to run out 6-4 winners. That ensured they took second spot in the pool on their own terms, though Dublin neighbours Three Rock Rovers were in the midst of doing them a favour by ending Cookstown’s challenge with a 3-1 win in Tyrone. Pembroke will now meet arch-rivals Glenanne in the last four, with ‘Garvey taking on Corinthian. For Ondine Roche’s photos from Quins vs UCC (women) click here, and for her photos from Quins vs Banbridge (men), click here.