Pegasus brought yet another trophy-filled season to a triumphant end at Belfield yesterday, avenging their Irish Senior Cup defeat at the hands of Hermes by beating the Leinster champions 21 to win the All Ireland League finals and qualify for next year's European Club Championships.
Apart from a lively opening spell, when a series of superb counter-attacking moves almost yielded a score, Hermes failed to reach the heights of their Irish Cup final display. For much of the game they were pinned back in their half by a Pegasus side whose passing and ball retention was infinitely superior.
After weathering an early storm from Hermes, Pegasus took control and took the lead in the 24th minute when Claire McMahon turned home a Jeanette Turner pass after Burke had blocked an Arlene Thompson shot from a short corner for the fourth successive time.
Minutes later, Hawthorne denied Hermes an equaliser when she made a point-blank save from Burke, and just before the break Tara Browne kept her side in the game when she pulled off a great save from another Thompson short corner strike.
When the equaliser came, in the 48th minute, it was against the run of play but it was also the goal of the match. Fiona Manning found an unmarked Carey in the circle with a quick sideline ball on the right and the forward drilled the ball past Hawthorne with a first-time shot to put her team back in the game.
Their hopes of victory were, however, cut short just two minutes later when Pegasus were awarded a penalty stroke after McMahon had been stick-tackled by Sinead McDonnell close to goal. Pamela Magill stepped up to fire the stroke low to Browne's right and restore her team's lead. Earlier in the day, Harlequins secured third place with a 6-0 win over Galway, but it was their display on Saturday, when they came agonisingly close to drawing with Pegasus, that was the highlight of their weekend. Rachel Kohler gave the Munster champions the lead after 39 minutes, when Pegasus were temporarily down to nine players, but McMahon equalised 15 minutes later before Kim Mills, one of the players "sin-binned", snatched the winner with just two minutes left to play.
UCD clinched promotion to Leinster Senior A on Saturday by beating Clontarf 4-0 at Grange Road in the promotion-relegation play-off. Goals from Sarah McDaid, Jenny Osborne (both on UCD hockey scholarships), Cara Weldrick and Susan Ryan gave the students a comfortable victory and secured their return to top flight hockey.
Hermes: T Browne, C Devine, H Kilroy, A Byrne, S McDonnell, R Burke, D Sixsmith, A Keane, J Burke (capt), M Logue, C Carey. Subs: D McDermott, F Manning.
Pegasus: D Hawthorne, C Redpath, A Thompson (capt), F Ferguson, P Magill, C McGookin, J Turner, T Stronge, C McMahon, J Campbell, K Mills.
Umpires: K Eppel (Leinster) and A McCloskey (Ulster).
