Anderson Cup: A look ahead to a big weekend of hockey

The line-up for the quarter-finals of the Anderson Cup is still to be determined after Thursday night’s game between Instonians and Mossley at Shaw’s Bridge was postponed due to frost.

Inst, who had won the first leg 2-1 with Dane Ward the two-goal hero, will now meet Mossley today in the rescheduled game, with the winners due to face North Down.

In Saturday’s quarter-final first leg games, Annadale will meet Banbridge, Newry will host Cookstown and Lisnagarvey will be at home to Bangor.

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On Wednesday, Garvey and Annadale progressed to the last eight while Cookstown had joined those two teams in the quarters 24 hours earlier.

Kilkeel were 3-2 winners over Annadale in the first leg suggesting a close fought contest in the rematch at Strathearn and so it proved as the home team won 5-3 to go through by one goal, 7-6, overall.

Holders Kilkeel trailed 5-0 at one stage but were in no mood to lie down clearly as they fought back to score three times in the second-half to set up a grandstand finish.

Ryan Burgess and Peter Caruth were on target to make it 2-0 and advantage Dale in the first half.

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Burgess completed his treble after the break when David Tremlett was also on the mark to make it 5-0 and, seemingly, tie over.

But Kilkeel had other ideas and recovered brilliantly to get back into contention with goals from Edward Agnew, Richard Fraser and William Annett but they were unable to add another to force a shootout.

Cookstown carried an 8-1 lead into the second leg against Portadown and completed a 13-2 aggregate win with a 5-1 success in the second phase.

Lisnagarvey, 8-3 winners over local rivals South Antrim in the first leg, were emphatic overall winners after a 5-1 second leg win at Comber Road to complete a 13-4 aggregate success.

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Andy Williamson, Troy Chambers, Matthew Nelson, Ben Nelson and Oliver Kidd were on the scoresheet for Garvey with James Brown replying.

In the first games in the Ulster Premier split, the bottom-tier Ulster Premier sides are in action today with Portadown hosting NICS, Queen’s at home to Harlequins and Raphoe playing Antrim in Donegal.

On Sunday, the action switches indoors with the Ulster Championship at the Queens PEC.

On the women’s scene, Queen’s, who were Ulster Premier runners up last season, were 4-0 winners over Banbridge during the week, with goals from Tori Hastings, Alyssa Jebb, Jessica McMaster and Emily McStea.

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But Lurgan stay top in pite of Wednesday’s game with Mossley postponed due to frost and today’s clash with Bann called off due to Ireland Under 18 trials.

In Saturday’s top-flight games, basement side Rainey are at home to Mossley and Ballymoney can close the gap on Lurgan to a single point if they can overcome Dungannon at the Joey Dunlop Centre.