As weekends go, Pembroke Wanderers won’t forget this one in a hurry.
Saturday: They were crowned EY Hockey League champions for the first time, bridging a 47-year gap since their last major national honour when they beat Pegasus in the 1975 Irish Senior Cup final.
Sunday: They beat, of all people, Pegasus to reach the 2022 Irish Senior Cup final, their first in eight years.
And in that final they’ll meet Catholic Institute, the team that pushed them all the way in the league, finishing just two points behind them after Saturday’s final round of matches.
Come Sunday, Institute showed yet again what a relentless team they are, coming from a goal down against UCD to score twice in the last 10 minutes, Naomi Carroll getting both, to reach their first final since 1984, and only their third ever.
It’s Pembroke, though, who now have a treble in their sights after Aisling Naughton’s second-minute goal on Saturday proved enough to beat Muckross who are relegated alongside Cork Harlequins.
And they needed that win too after Institute had won 2-1 away to Belfast Harlequins earlier in the day – their superior goal difference would have seen them take the title if the teams had finished level on points.
Both clubs now go straight in to the Champions Trophy semi-finals, with Pegasus, Loreto, Old Alexandra and UCD battling it out to join them. They all secured their quarter-final places on Saturday, Railway Union missing out on goal difference, Pegasus now at home to UCD in the last eight, with Old Alexandra hosting an in-form Loreto who had a run of six wins and a draw in their last seven games to secure their slot.
Hockey League – Division One: Pembroke Wanderers 1 (A Naughton), Muckross 0; Belfast Harlequins 1 (K Larmour), Catholic Institute 2 (R Upton, L Clery); Old Alexandra 1 (S Robinson), Railway Union 1 (Z Delany); Cork Harlequins 1 (M Barry), Loreto 5 (C Hamill 3, S O'Brien, Y Pratt); UCD 0, Pegasus 2 (T Doherty, K Magee).
Irish Senior Cup, semi-finals: Catholic Institute 2 (N Carroll 2), UCD 1 (H McLoughlin); Pembroke Wanderers 2 (O Macken, G Pinder), Pegasus 0.
