Rovers rocked by two defeats while Lynch lifts Garvey

Having lost just once in top-level competition the previous 14 months, national champions Three Rock Rovers  spectacularly crashed to two shock defeats this weekend. Mick McGuinness fired drag-flicks in the fifth and 69th minutes to give Fingal a famous 2-0 victory in yesterday’s refixed Irish Hockey League clash, a result which leaves Pool B wide open. And Leinster title-holders Rovers were also on the wrong end of a first league reverse since October 2007 on Saturday, surprisingly going down 2-1 to struggling Railway Union. Elsewhere in the IHL Pool B,  Lisnagarvey reeled in a three-goal deficit to claim a thrilling 5-4 victory over Monkstown as Cork native Jason Lynch grabbed a sensational winner with three minutes to go.

Strikes from Gareth Watkins, teen sensation Stephen Cole and Filip Jaros had put the Dubliners 3-0 up at Rathdown, and they looked to have quelled a possible Garvey revival when Watkins cancelled out Timmy Cockram’s penalty corner after the break. But Stuart McNeice gave Garvey renewed hope on 43 minutes, and Cockram rammed home penalty corners either side of the end of the third quarter to tie it up, before Lynch coolly converted a three-on-one to seal a stunning comeback. Meanwhile, the biting cold in Belfast claimed the Instonians v Pembroke Wanderers clash for a second time, while the Cookstown/Annadale saga rumbles on after the latter appealed for a postponement, causing yet another fixture headache for tournament organisers. The shocks continued in the women’s IHL yesterday, where last season’s Irish Senior Cup winners Pegasus were defeated 3-2 by Loreto. Alex Speers nudged the Belfast ladies in front early on, but international colleague Nikki Symmons’ drag had Loreto level by the end of the first quarter. Teenager Zara Delany — who claimed an eight-minute hat-trick in Loreto’s opening IHL encounter against Belfast Harlequins — found the net either side of half-time before Speers setup a nervy finale, but the Ulster kingpins couldn’t find an equaliser. In Pool B, second-half strikes from Catriona McGlip and Rosie Carrigan saw UCD give Ballymoney the slip on a 2-0 scoreline at Belfield yesterday. Elsewhere, Cork Harlequins’ men did the double over Cork Church of Ireland B this weekend, but not without suffering a major fright against the Garryduff club’s second string. C of I B were 2-0 up on their illustrious rivals in Saturday’s league tie with breakaway goals from Andrew Gray and Mark Holmes. But a John Hobbs double and Dave Egner’s strike pulled the game out of the fire for Quins in a 3-2 win, while Hobbs and Paul Lombard were on the scoresheet yesterday as they won their Peard Cup semi-final against the same opposition 2-0. They will meet Bandon in the final on December 27. The cold weather claimed Munster’s only other Division One fixture, a keenly-awaited the top-of-the-table tie between the women of UCC and Cork Harlequins.

As explained elsewhere on this site, few of the Irish Trophy and Irish Challenge games went ahead, but the best of those that survived the freeze was played out at Newtown, where second division Waterford pushed Catholic Institute all the way before going down 4-3. There was heartbreak for Limerick in both the men’s and women’s Irish Challenge matches – the latter went down 3-2 to Greenfields, while the men were cruising at 2-0 against Down thanks to goals from Robbie Ryan and Roy Harvey, only for Mark Elliot’s brace and Jareth McGready to complete a memorable comeback for the northerners. Cork C of I were the big winners in the women’s lower ranks, defeating rivals Harlequins 1-0 (Div 2) and 7-0 (Div 3) and UCC 4-0 in Div 4. In the men’s leagues, Belvedere recorded a notable 5-3 victory at Harlequins C in Division Two, while amazingly, all but one of the games in Division Three survived the weather, with Belvedere B’s clash with UCC C the only game to bite the dust. Runaway leaders Quins D surrendered their 100% record at the hands of C of I E, drawing 2-2, with the latter now in joint second place with Ashton, who were 6-2 winners at C of I F. Midleton drop back a few places after failing to fulfil their fixture away to Limerick B, while Catholic Institute B moved themselves back into contention with a 3-2 defeat of UCC. Dave Kavanagh bagged a hat-trick for the Rosbrien side, with James O’Reilly and Dickie Barrett replying for the Mardyke lads.