MEN'S HOCKEY: On a cold, grey afternoon, with the hockey fraternity observing a minute's silence in memory of Gerry McCabe, there was little appetite for resistance in the third round of the Irish Senior Cup on Saturday when goals and one-sided games were never so numerous.
On the Rathdown turf where Gerry, in his coaching capacity, last directed a Monkstown victory (2-1 against Pembroke Wanderers in the Leinster League), five days later Pembroke defeated Avoca 7-0.
The tallies were even higher in Cork where Harlequins and C of I registered 11 and eight goals, respectively, against Antrim and Catholic Institute. The only 1-0 margin was achieved by one of Munster's more modest sides, UCC, who eliminated Naas through John Nagle's first-half strike.
Another Cork team, Belvedere, were at the wrong end of a 7-2 defeat by the trophy holders Instonians, for whom Chris Barnes, with four goals, was the leading marksman of the day.
Hat-tricks were recorded by David Eakins (Harlequins), Paul Lombard (Harlequins), David Hobbs (C of I), Philip Balbernies (in a 6-2 win for Trinity against Mossley), Philip Stirling (for Lisnagarvey, 3-1 away to Aer Lingus) and Andrew Walker (for YMCA, 5-1 victors at North Down).
Three Rock Rovers, who had only overcome UCD through a golden goal by Charlie Carroll in the Neville Cup semi-final in midweek, beat the students 5-0 at all-Ireland level on Saturday.
Pembroke retained the Leinster Under-21 Cup with a 4-0 victory over Glenanne in yesterday's final at Serpentine Avenue. Maurice Elliott opened the scoring and then Ronan Gormley was on the target from two short corners on either side of the interval before Ken Treacy completed the tally.
PEMBROKE WANDERERS (under-21): M McKay; F McGuinness, B Dunne (capt), K Treacy, B Grogan; A Alipour, R Gormley, S Smyth; S Blake-Knox, M Elliott, A Cooke. Subs: M Connellan, P Harvey, M de Courcy, D McGuinness, A Cartwright.
GLENANNE (under-21): D Gill; J Kehoe, A Byrne, J Brennan (capt), D McDonnell; G Shaw, R Billings, K O'Malley; I Hannon, J Stewart, M O'Regan. Subs: T Murphy, V Geary, O Lynch.
