THREE GOALS by their 18 year old front runner Simon Kershaw contributed largely to Pembroke Wanderers 4-0 win over Portrane at Serpentine Avenue last night and clinched the Leinster Senior League hockey title for the home side.
Taking the laurels for the third time in four seasons, Pembroke have still one match to play, against Glenanne, who will be hoping to capture the runners up spot at the expense of Three Rock Rovers, last year's champions, and Avoca.
"Considering our injuries, the lads have done remarkably well," said coach Jonathan Cole. It's nice to finish with a game in hand. We can now focus totally on the Irish Senior Cup. Even when players are missing, we know what has to be done.
Absent from the field last evening were international goalkeeper Nigel Henderson, who hurt a finger in training, and Paudie Carley, who was unavailable. Dave Acheson stood in between the posts and, Stephen Stewart, who was back after injury, put away the second goal after Kershaw hand linked up with Francis de Rosa to open the scoring. Despite stout netminding by Darren Neville, Kershaw seized two more opportunities in the second half to complete the tally.
Meanwhile other young strikers, youth internationals Justin Sherriff and Ian Allen, excelled as St Andrew's College won all five matches in the Oxford public schools festival. Twenty seven goals were registered by the Dublin side. They beat Wellington (Somerset) 7-1, Trent (Nottingham) 8-0 and Hallcroft (Doncaster) 6-0 before defeating leading: schools Felsed, 2-1, and Cranley, 4-0. As a result, an invitation has been extended to visit Port Elizabeth in South Africa next year.
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