David Harte a step closer to Euro Hockey League winner’s medal

David Harte took a big step towards becoming the first Irish player to win the Euro Hockey League, the biggest club hockey competition in the world, as he helped SV Kampong to back-to-back wins over the weekend.

The recently-crowned world’s best goalkeeper played his part in a 6-1 win over Racing Club de France in the last 16. Then yesterday they won 5-1 against German champions Rot-Weiss Köln in Amsterdam.

It means Kampong will contest the EHL Final4 in Barcelona in mid-May, meeting Spanish side Atletic Terrassa in the semifinals with a heavy favourites tag.

Irish players who have come close to being part of a winning team in the EHL include John Jermyn and Iain Lewers – then an Irish international before switching to Great Britain – both played in the 2008 final for HGC but fell to UHC Hamburg.

Ronan Gormley was part of Madrid's Club de Campo who were finalists in 2011, while Stephen Butler played for Belgium's Dragons in the 2013 final defeat to HC Bloemendaal.