No major surprises but the manner in which each of the favoured sides got through added to the excitement of the day with a glut of games decided by a single goal when large margins might have been predicted.
Corinthian were the only side to buck the trend, once again hitting Railway for six, though this time they managed to open the scoring through Mark Egner. Brian Doherty's hat-trick of corners in response had the game thoroughly in the reds favour before Kenny Carroll pulled back one at 5-2. It was scant consolation, Miles Warren grabbed another to complete the rout.
Fingal nearly produced an epic comeback at the airport against Ulster champions-elect Cookstown, recovering from a 4-1 half-time deficit to push all the way to 5-4 but were unable to grab the crucial goal to force extra-time.
Andy Barbour, Andy Smyth and David Ames had put the Town into a comfortable lead but such advantages are becoming more and more perilous on recent week's experience.
David Bane, Adrian Sweeney and Trevor Parsons made it tight but no cigar and Fingal will be concerned at the number of goals conceded in recent weeks.
Three Rock had a tough one up in Bangor, scraping a 3-2 while Glenanne managed 3-1 against second-tier side North Down - Johnny Kane to the fore with a brace. The two winners there will now play each other in the quarters.Banbridge finally got their first round tie played, enduring a tough day in Donegal before emerging thanks to Eugene Magee's brace in a 3-2 win. They play Cork Harlequins next week in the second round. Mossley needed the same score to dispose of NICS.
Results:
Round 1: Raphoe 2 (James Corry, Richard Patterson) Banbridge (Eugene Magee 2, Bruce McCandless)
Round 2: Mossley 3 (Simon Todd 2, Andy Coulter) NICS 2 (Aaron Gill, Ricky Shiels); Corinthian 6 (Brian Doherty 3, David Carson 2, Miles Warren) Railway Union (Kenny Caroll, Mark Egner); Lisnagarvey 2 (Johnny Gray, Timmy Cockram) Annadale 3 (Peter Caruth 2, Neil Hamilton); Bangor 2 (Jamie McAuley, Simon Hunter) Three Rock Rovers 3 (Peter McConnell, Peter Blakeney, Patrick Shanahan); North Down 1 (Mark Forrest) Glenanne 3 (Jonathan Kane 2, Stpehen Butler); Fingal 4 (Mark Ryan, David Bane, Adrian Sweeney, Trevor Parsons) Cookstown 5 (Andy Barbour, Andy Smyth 2, David Ames, Ian Hutchinson)
* Adrian Boehm's pcitures from Fingal vs Cookstown can be seen here
12 comments:
Will be interesting to see how many young lads get the cigar comment...very witty...
Thought CHC looked v sharp yesterday.
Would that be CHC(Cookstown Hockey Club) or CHC(Corinthian Hockey Club)
seeing as its the leinster blog and the majority of commenters would be from leinster id hazard a guess at CHC being corinthians.
I'd also be very surprised if CHC looked anything but sharp against railway
cookstown were sharp for the first 20mins, and were not to hot for the last 20mins however fingal did set up better in the second half. cookstown will need to keep the concentration for the full 70mins if they are to go all the way.
Cookstown have now struggled to beat Fingal and Monkstown. Would have no chance against Pembroke, TRR and Glens. I know they drew with Pem up there but they got hosed in Serpentine last year. Only way they'll survive is a kind home draw.
coosktown have already beaten three rock and drawn with pembroke, and unlucky not to claim all three points.
when did they beat three rock?
Predominently leinster but not completly!
Cookstown beat TRR at Banbridge in a warm up game for them heading away to EHL...using previously used terms though...cookstown hosed on them i think it was 5or6 : 2!
Also in Club champs last year @ garvey pembroke won 2:1 against cookstown...it could only be called "hosed on" in some hilarious pun relating to the lack of water pressure @ said multi million pound complex! ... that or you have no clue about hockey!
So thats cookstown AWAY on both occasions, pushing pembroke all the way and tonking TRR!!!
You maybe should write too much more!
its ridiculous mentioning how Cookstown beat TRR in a "warm-up", proper competition matches are all that matter when comparing teams. TRR and Pembroke were also AWAY for those matches
re: 11.36 above
Cookstown struggling to beat etc. I'm sure every club in ireland would love to be struggling like cookstown. Struggled to win Kirk Cup/ struggled to win the Ulster title for the 2nd year in a row. Have now struggled into QF of Isc. I hope they keep on struggling like this..great for Ulster. Wwish my team were struggling just like Cookstown
In saying that TRR were AWAY in that match versus Cookstown, from what I understand it was at Banbridge (a water-based facility) so unless Cookstown have decided to 'ground-share' with Banbridge I'd doubt that it was a HOME game for Cookstown.
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