Stephen Ludgate | Deputy Sports Editor
The Zoti Hockey Intervarsities took place in Three Rock Rovers Hockey Club as a joint-hosted competition by Trinity and RCSI. Twenty-four teams competed in four separate men’s and ladies competitions – The Mauritius Cup and Plate and the Chilean Cup and Plate. This year the tournament was restructured so that both men’s and women’s competitions had ‘A’ and ‘B’ divisions, to create more competitive matches and prevent the wide divide of standard which had been seen in previous years. Each division was composed of six teams and relegation and promotion would then occur between the winner of the Plate and the bottom placed team in the Cup, for the following year.
The Trinity men’s team played the first game of the men’s ‘A’ division – the Mauritius Cup – against reigning champions, UCC, early on the Sunday morning. Trinity came into the game on the back of nine successive defeats while UCC were high on confidence, sitting in second position in Munster’s Division 1. UCC started brightly winning a short corner in the opening moments; however the Trinity defence managed to clear their lines and the team began to settle into the game. Trinity broke the deadlock in the 12th minute, when a crash ball across the UCC goal was deflected in by Steven Roberts. UCC pressed hard to find an equaliser leaving themselves exposed on the break and Trinity managed to take advantage of this and extend their lead. A neat one-two between Roberts and Fred Mann allowed Roberts to find Neal Megarity unmarked on the back post; Megarity coolly slotted the ball into the net, scoring his first goal for Trinity after three years.
UCC pulled one back early in the second half from a short corner, but soon after, Will O’Connell made it 3-1. UCC responded with a second, setting up a nervy ending. Despite five short corners after the final whistle, UCC failed to find the net for a third time, allowing Trinity to secure their first win of the season. Trinity played their second game against DIT on the Sunday evening, losing 4-2 to a side laden with Division 1 talent and featuring three senior Irish internationals. The result meant that Trinity were relying on DIT to beat UCC in the remaining pool game. DIT did what was needed for Trinity, beating UCC 7-6 in an enthralling tie. UCD won both of their group games, in the other pool, to set up a semi-final with Trinity. This left DCU and UCC to battle to avoid relegation; UCC ran out 10-1 winners.
The semi-final between Trinity and UCD started at high pace and began with both teams having chances to break the deadlock. The match remained scoreless until the 21st minute, when UCD won their first short corner which was duly dispatched by Nick Burns. Another corner followed shortly with the same result, Burns grabbing his second of the evening. Kirk Shimmins added a third before the half time break, leaving UCD in a very strong position. Despite the best efforts of Trinity, UCD, whose team also featured three senior Irish internationals, added three more in the second half. This sent UCD through to the final where they would meet DIT who got the better of University of Ulster in extra time. The final was a high quality game, which saw DIT take a 2-0 lead into half time. However a Burns hat trick, all from short corners, gave UCD a 3-2 victory and their second intervarsity crown in three years.
Trinity Men’s team beat reigning champions UCC 3-2. Photos: Paul Colton
The Trinity ladies team were competing in the ladies plate competition as a result of their 7th place finish last year. They were drawn in a group with RCSI and NUI Maynooth. The ladies team progressed with two comfortable victories to meet UL in the semi-finals. Despite dominating for the duration of the match, Trinity were unable to find a breakthrough and the match progressed to penalty strokes as the deadlock couldn’t be broken. Despite their supremacy in normal time, the ladies team suffered a heart-breaking defeat in penalties, condemning them to another year of plate hockey. UL went on to beat IT Tallaght in the Chilean Plate final, gaining promotion for the following year.
The IT Tallaght men made amends for their ladies plate defeat, beating Carlow IT on sudden death penalty strokes after a 3-3 draw in the Mauritius Plate final. The tense shootout required eighteen penalties before reaching a conclusion.
In the ladies cup UCD met University of Ulster in the final, looking to avenge a 4-3 defeat in the pool stages. Both teams had benefitted from a wealth of senior international experience but it was UCD who ran out 3-1 winners, replicating the university’s double of 2011. Aisling Naughton got the first goal with Anna O’Flanagan making it 2-0 to UCD at half-time. Emily Beatty got the third before Vanessa Surgenor got what scored a consolation for UU.
The Irish Universities team trialists were also selected from the three day competition, and eight Trinity students; Connor Montgomery, Aran Rooney, Geoff Garrett, Stephen Ludgate, Vera Taaffe, Anna May Whelan, Avril Dooley O’Carroll and Sophie Marshall were all selected after their performances at the tournament. The tournament was a huge success and will be hosted by Queens University next year in Belfast. The event proved to be very positive for Trinity Hockey both on and off the field, with Roger West and Ruth Potterton, the respective club presidents, club captains Matthew Lewis and Emma McErlean and their committees all seeing the bounty of their effort in a very successful intervarsity weekend.
