The men’s EY Hockey League top of the table clash between Monkstown and Lisnagarvey fell victim of Storm Jorge as the game only lasted until half-time before the weather proved too challenging to continue.
At that stage, Town were 2-1 leaders and eyeing a first defeat of the season for Garvey but it was not to be and a refixed date will have to be found.
Four matches did survive the storm, meanwhile, with Banbridge, Three Rock Rovers, Glenanne and Pembroke all recording wins.
Bann had beaten YMCA 8-0 just a few weeks ago but the return date at Havelock Park was nowhere near as comfortable as the Y took the lead in just the second minute through Grant Glutz.
They held that advantage for the guts of an hour before the Co Down hosts ran up three goals in the last nine minutes with Jonny McKee getting a brace to make it 3-1.
Three Rock held off the challenge of Corinthian in the Marlay derby at Whitechurch Park to win 2-1, Harry Morris and Ben Walker getting in their goals in the first eight minutes before the weather deteriorated.
Glenanne won a goal-fest at Belfield against UCD 6-4 to make it two wins in a week for the Tallaght club. They edged into a 2-0 lead in the first quarter before the scoring went tit-for-tat with UCD pulling it back to 2-1, 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4. Crucially, goalkeeper Max Maguire was shown a yellow card with 10 minutes to go and Stu Ronan scored into an empty-net to seal the points.
Pembroke moved out of the relegation playoff place thanks to a 6-2 win over Annadale with Alan Sothern scoring four times. That increases his tally to 10 this season against Dale and makes it 14 goals in his last five games in the EYHL.
YMCA drop back down to ninth place as a result, eight points clear of bottom side Annadale who have seven games left to make up that deficit.
Men’s EY Hockey League day 12 results: Annadale 2 (A McAllister, D Tremlett) Pembroke 6 (A Sothern 4, A Burns, N Burns); Banbridge 3 (J McKee 2, Ph Brown) YMCA 1 (G Glutz); Corinthian 1 (R Clarke) Three Rock Rovers 2 (H Morris, B Walker); UCD 4 (I Styles, M Romoli, C Murphy, D Nolan) Glenanne 6 (B Venter, C Kennedy, S Boucher, J McCormack, G Shaw, S Ronan); Monkstown v Lisnagarvey abandoned at half-time
Next week’s fixtures
Saturday, March 7th: UCD v Banbridge, Belfield, 1pm; Glenanne v Annadale, St Andrew’s, 2.45pm; Three Rock Rovers v Lisnagarvey, Grange Road, 3pm; Pembroke v Monkstown, Serpentine Avenue, 4pm; YMCA v Glenanne, Wesley College, 4pm
Men’s EYHL day 12 reports
UCD 4 (I Styles, M Romoli, C Murphy, D Nolan) Glenanne 6 (B Venter, C Kennedy, S Boucher, J McCormack, G Shaw, S Ronan)
Glenanne won a goal-fest at Belfield to make it two wins in seven days, lifting them up to 14 points, while UCD are now on a streak of four successive losses. Brad Venter and Clive Kennedy combined to make it 2-0 before the end of the first quarter.
Iain Styles’ deflection reduced the gap in the 22nd minute only for Shannon Boucher to power home a penalty corner drag-flick soon after. It was 3-2 in the 26th minute via Matteo Romoli but Glenanne stayed in the clear at half-time when Johnny McCormack scored from another corner.
Cian Murphy nicked another one back early in the second half; again Glenanne replied with player-coach Gary Shaw on the mark to make it 5-3. That came in the 52nd minute but less than 60 seconds later, UCD won a stroke which David Nolan calmly scored to make it 5-4 going into the final quarter.
But hopes of salvaging a result were ended when goalkeeper Max Maguire was shown a yellow card and with no recognised replacement on the bench, Glenanne took full advantage with Stu Ronan hitting in what proved to be the clincher.
“We certainly made it difficult for ourselves and it was end to end,” said Glenanne skipper Brad Venter following the tie. “Any team could have taken it on the day; we built a good lead and they kept pegging us back but glad to get the win in the end.”
“It is a different season to last year but playoffs is still the target,” he added, comparing it to last year when the Glens were comfortably in the top four. “We had a bit of a slump toward the end of last season but glad to see we are taking our chances now and piling up a few points.”
For UCD coach Michael Styles, he felt his side was too susceptible to sucker-punches: “On the ball, we were very good and I thought we dominated a lot of play. Glenanne were very good on the counter-attack and they hit us quite a lot before the game turned into chaos in the last couple of minutes which put the final nail in our coffin.”
Banbridge 3 (J McKee 2, Ph Brown) YMCA 1 (G Glutz)
Three goals in the last nine minutes saw Banbridge pick up the points at home against YMCA after they trailed for almost an hour at Havelock Park. The tie was markedly different from their recent meeting which saw Bann cruise to an 8-0 victory but the complexion of the contest was defined by the early phases.
Grant Glutz’s second minute penalty corner goal put YM in front, a lead which they clung onto with goalkeeper Jakim Bernsden in cracking form to keep out chances from Jonny McKee, Eugene Magee and Philip Brown in the first quarter.
They went on to run up nine corners which were repelled by the YM defence until the 61st minute when McKee won a stroke which he duly converted to make it 1-1. It broke the YM resolve and Phil Brown then laid on a second for McKee within a minute and the win was complete with six minutes remaining when Owen Magee’s silky skills won a corner which Brown finally found the next from.
Corinthian 1 (R Clarke) Three Rock Rovers 2 (H Morris, B Walker)
Three Rock Rovers made it six games unbeaten as they got ahead before the worst of the weather kicked in at Whitechurch Park to beat Corinthian 2-1.
Harry Morris’s reverse-stick shot form the top of the D opened the scoring in the third minute and they were two to the good when Ben Walker finished off from close range. After that, conditions deteriorated badly, making fluid hockey difficult to come by.
Corinthian got back into it as a result of a rebound after a short corner from Robbie Clarke to make it 2-1 at half-time. The second half belonged to the home side where they had several short corners in a row but Conor Quinn and the Rovers defence held out. The combination of the weekend’s results means the top four – with Rovers in fourth – currently have seven points to spare over the chasers.
Annadale 2 (A McAllister, D Tremlett) Pembroke 6 (A Sothern 4, A Burns, N Burns)
Alan Sothern continued his latest run of remarkable goalscoring to 14 goals in his last five games for Pembroke – including 10 in two meetings against Annadale – to help his side earn a 6-2 win which lifts them out of the relegation playoff place.
He opened the scoring in the ninth minute from play before Adam McAllister equalised early in the second quarter. A second Sothern strike and an Alex Burns corner rebound, though, gave Pembroke breathing room at half-time at 3-1.
Sothern completed his hat trick in the 40th minute and while David Tremlett pulled another one back, there was time for Sothern to net his fourth goal and Nick Burns got in on the act in the final minute. The defeat leaves Dale eight points adrift of YMCA at the bottom.
