Women’s Hockey: Railway dash Elks’ hope of defending Cup

Ulster Elks' hopes of defending the Irish Senior Cup they had won for the past two seasons were ended in emphatic style at the first hurdle by Railway Union on Saturday, the Leinster side handing out a 7-0 drubbing to the champions at Jordanstown.

While Elks have lost the bulk of the squad that beat Ards on strokes in last year's final and got the better of Hermes the year before, they would still have expected to put up a better show on home turf. Two goals apiece, though, from Niamh Carey and Emma Smyth, with Cecelia Joyce, Sinead Dooley and Zara Delany also contributing, saw Railway cruise to victory.

But that wasn't even the biggest win of the first round, that honour going to UCD who crushed Old Alexandra 9-0 at Belfield, Katie Mullan scoring a hat-trick.

Ards, too, were big winners, hat-tricks from Chloe Brown and Lucy McKee giving them a 6-1 win over Muckross, while a Chloe Watkins double helped Hermes- Monkstown to a 5-0 defeat of Corinthian.