THE END of one of Irish hockey's longest seasons comes as a particular relief to such figures as Alan Dowd, captain of Ireland, and Robbie Taylor, the embattled Lisnagarvey skipper.
Yesterday, in the second of the interprovincial club play offs at Belfield, Lisnagarvey completed the cup and league double (last achieved in 1994) when they outplayed Cork C of I in a commanding second half performance.
Lisnagarvey now go into the European Champions' Cup next year while Pembroke Wanderers, beaten 4-3 in the Irish Senior Cup final and 3-2 on Saturday in the first of the league play offs, will play in the secondary European competition.
Today, Pembroke and C of I meet in a match purely for leisure while Dowd hopes to be playing golf.
It was Taylor, scorer of Ireland's 1,000th international goal in Cagliari in October, who drove Lisnagarvey into the lead from a short corner after nine minutes yesterday. Then both Dowd and Jimmy Kirkwood diverted set piece shots from Alastair Dunne off the goalline as C of I, with Andrew Chambers and Derek Hales providing assurance at the back, attacked vigorously in search of an equaliser.
Raymond Geddis was also required to react sharply to the Cork approaches, though there was nothing the goalkeeper could do when Dunne lashed the ball in from the edge of the circle and it fell to the alert Darren Hanna to make it 1-1 at the interval.
Early in the second half, however, Taylor flicked Lisnagarvey back into the lead and the issue was settled in the 43rd minute when Brian Waring and the Kirkwood entering the game in phases - engineered an opening for Mark Tumilty to increase the margin. Further goals followed from Taylor (for a short corner hat trick) and Daniel Clarke, who cracked home a free from Peter Richardson.
C of I's lack of match practice at top level was a considerable factor in the scoreline while Lisnagarvey had sufficient energy to assert themselves after Pembroke bad managed to match them to a greater degree on Saturday than in the cup decider.
On Saturday, Nigel Henderson again gave an outstanding goal keeping performance, while Turlough O Siochain, Francis de Rosa and Paudie Carley fought tigerishly in a reshuffled side in which Peter Young volunteered to curb Kirkwood.
Dowd and Geddis, along with Norman McNellis, were also required to be fully operational as Pembroke probed for a break through which came too late to save a point.
Clarke struck clinically for Lisnagarvey in the 13th and 61st minutes before Devin Donnelly was credited with a deflected goal to make it 2-1 five minutes from the end. But the ever eager Julian Stevenson immediately replied, before the indefatigable Andy Cooke dived in to score from Pembroke's last attack.
