IHL dream dies for College

UCC and Galway were unable to spring any surprises as the Irish Hockey League wildcard playoffs went entirely to plan for the favourites — so much so that the final day’s play could be cancelled. With two sides to qualify from each three-team tournament, by the end of Saturday’s games, the women of Hermes and Ards and the men of YMCA and Instonians had already qualified for next season’s competition.

The pairs were due to face off in Banbridge yesterday but with both games now dead rubbers, the Irish Hockey Association sensibly cancelled the games at the clubs’ request. UCC fought harder than the results suggest to become the first Munster side to qualify from the men’s playoffs, but ultimately were handed a lesson in finishing by Inst and YM while the rigours of two games in a single day — as requested by the students to alleviate exam commitments — also told. The students were well in it at 1-0 down to Inst at half-time in game one but although the Ulster side lost Paddy Brown to a yellow card, Mark Irwin added his second and James Corry another to kill the game off shortly after the break. College did hit back through Graham Catchpole’s short corner rebound but Corry and Irwin both completed their hat-tricks late on to secure a 6-1 victory. UCC hit the Belfield pitch against YM just 100 minutes later and although they went behind to an Andy Walker strike, the Cork side scored the day’s outstanding goal to level it almost immediately. With YM committing eight men to a short corner, College counter-attacked with élan as David Doherty set Fionn O’Leary free. His cross found a diving Shrew Power to deflect high to the net on his reverse and stun this season’s IHL finalists. But the Dubliners hit back with a turnover goal through Marcus Richardson — taking advantage as College claimed in vain for a foul on Colin Manning — and Jonny Bruton’s pinpoint backhand shot to the bottom corner settled them down by half-time. The expected avalanche of goals never materialised in a second half mainly memorable for a red card to YM’s Geoff Walker, after he received two yellows for taking out Power in full flight. But Richardson added his second late on to put some gloss on things for YM. In the women’s competition, Hermes trounced Galway  bidding to become the first Connacht side ever to feature in the IHL – 8-0 on Friday night, Aine Connery getting four to all but secure their place in next season’s competition. And that was confirmed a day later as Ards joined them with a 2-0 win over the westerners, whose resistance was eventually broken by two goals in the final 14 minutes from Chloe Brown. The Bangor schoolgirl was fresh from being part of a delegation — which included football superstar David Beckham — that brought the Olympic flame from Athens to the UK on Friday. Irish Hockey League wildcard playoffs, Belfield Men: Instonians 6 (M Irwin 3, J Corry 3) UCC 1 (G Catchpole);  YMCA 4 (M Richardson 2, A Walker, J Bruton) UCC 1 (A Power); Instonians v YMCA, not played; Instonians and YMCA qualify for IHL 2012/13; last game cancelled as it was a dead rubber. Women: Hermes 8 (A Connery 4, A O’Flynn, E Horan, K McComish, M Crowley) Galway 0; Ards 2 (C Brown 2 ) Galway 0; Hermes v Ards, not played; Hermes and Ards qualify for IHL 2012/13; last game cancelled as it was a dead rubber.