Three Rock Rovers see off Monkstown in three-goal rout

Three Rock Rovers gave Monkstown a post Halloween fright at Rathdown in a three goal rout involving Canning, Mullins and Empey. It also handed the home side their first defeat of the season in the All Ireland league, having drawn three already.

That one way traffic in tandem with Cork C of I holding Lisnagarvey to a 2-2 draw in Garryduff and a win for Banbridge in Serpentine Avenue rearranges the top of the table with ‘Garvey and Banbridge taking the top two places and Monkstown falling into fourth position.

It is all early days but Railway fell to their fourth defeat of the season to the students at UCD. It was UCD that took hold of the game with Railway coming back but ultimately falling short. Jeremy Duncan netted two for the students with Mark English also grabbing a brace for Railway to add to one from Simon Mc Keever. But it was UCD who finished 4-3 winners with other goals coming from Andrew Keane and Greg Chambers.

That moves UCD nicely away from the bottom of the table with Railway on three points, Glenanne on two points and bottom placed Instonians one point, all them hovering around the relegation shake up zone.

In Garryduff, it took two strikes from Ireland’s short corner specialist John Jermyn to keep Lisnargarvey at bay. The Ulster side replied with important goals from Andy Williamson and James Lorimer to maintain their unbeaten run. ‘Garvy have drawn twice so far but have yet to be beaten in the EY League.

They face an interesting fixture next weekend when Banbridge make the short trip up to Hillsborough. Both sides are on 11 points at the top and are so far unbeaten with a win for either giving them the outright lead.

Meanwhile, it’s as you were at the top of the EY Hockey League table after the three leading clubs all picked up wins on Saturday. Hermes-Monkstown and Cork Harlequins extended their perfect starts to the campaign while UCD stayed within two points of them with a narrow win away to Pembroke Wanderers.

Railway Union pushed Hermes-Monkstown all the way at Park Avenue, the hosts levelling through Julia O’Halloran soon after Rosie Carrigan had given the joint leaders a fifth minute lead, and they looked on course for a draw until Chloe Watkins’ final quarter penalty stroke decided the game.

Cork Harlequins, for whom Róisín Upton made her debut after completing her time at the University of Connecticut, made it five wins out of five by beating Belfast Harlequins 4-2 at Farmers Cross. Yvonne O’Byrne deflected home a penalty corner after eight minutes to give the Munster side the lead, Kate Bateman doubling the advantage in the second quarter. Claire Weir pulled a goal back for the visitors soon after, but Nicola Kerr restored the two goal gap by half-time. Rebecca Barry stretched that lead to 4-1 before Weir’s final quarter consolation for Belfast.

All the goals in the game between Pembroke and UCD came in the third quarter, Eanna Horan converting a penalty corner for Pembroke before Emma Russell and Leah Ewart got the goals that gave the students the points.

Pegasus lost further ground on the top three after being held to a 2-2 draw at home to Loreto, but they came perilously close to defeat, Hannah Grieve equalising from a penalty corner after the final whistle had blown. Before then Loreto had fought back from a goal down to lead through scores from Sarah Evans and Lauren O’Leary. Ards, meanwhile, won their all-Ulster battle against Elks, Chloe Brown giving them a first quarter lead, Lucy McKee making it 2-0 in the third, before Emily O’Leary pulled one back.