A week after knocking Pegasus out of the Irish Senior Cup, beating them in a penalty shootout to reach the final, Cork Harlequins are heading north once more for an Irish Hockey League double-header in Belfast. Pegasus will be their opponents again on Saturday before they take on Belfast Harlequins on Sunday.
Ards are the only side not in IHL action this weekend. They’ll be playing in the indoor EuroHockey Club Trophy in Lithuania, where they’ll be up against teams from the host country, England, Scotland, France, Ukraine and Sweden.
Back home, the pick of the IHL games looks to be the meeting of fourth-placed Loreto and Hermes-Monkstown at Beaufort.
Hermes lost top spot in the table last weekend when their game away to Pegasus was postponed, with new leaders UCD taking advantage by beating Railway Union.
The students will expect to hold on to first by getting the better of bottom club Ulster Elks, who they play in Jordanstown. The teams who are just above Elks, Pembroke Wanderers and Belfast Harlequins, meet on Saturday at Serpentine Avenue.
Hockey League – Saturday: Loreto v Hermes-Monkstown, Beaufort, 1.0; Pembroke Wanderers v Belfast Harlequins, Serpentine Avenue, 2.0; Ulster Elks v UCD, UUJ, 2.30; Pegasus v Cork Harlequins, Queens, 4.0. Sunday: Belfast Harlequins v Cork Harlequins, Deramore Park, 1.0.