What a momentous day for Portrane Hockey Club as both the clubs Senior Ladies and Men competed in Cup finals, our Ladies in Leinster Vs UCD and our Men on the National stage in the Irish Hockey Trophy Final.First up was our young and emerging Ladies team who had too much guile and firepower for a shell shocked UCD team who perhaps had not the opportunity in recent weeks to prepare to the level Portrane did who overwhelmed UCD to race into a 4-0 lead early in the game and their was no way back for UCD after that with a hungry and determined Portrane outfit looking to attack and counter attack at every opportunity, further goals were added before half time as Portrane’s Midfield and Forward line wreaked havoc all over the pitch. The tempo dropped somewhat in the 2nd half but Portrane still found time to add further goals to run out 9-0 winners against a UCD team who despite the score line never gave up and played the game in the right spirit to the end.

Attention then turned to our Men who travelled to the superb facilities of Lisnagarvey Hockey Club, Hillsborough, Co. Down to take on the very experienced Belfast Harlequins. It was Portrane who made the early breakthrough with a great team goal from the in form Dylan Eustace and this was to be the half time scoreline. The 3rd quarter was Portrane’s best spell with a superb goal from Stephen Rogan making it 2-0 before Sean Graham made it 3-0 .It looked like game over but one thing about Belfast Harlequins was they never threw in the towel and with 10 minutes to go they pulled a goal back from a short corner to make it 3-1 and within minutes they added another to make 3-2 with 5 minutes remaining, Portrane were rattled and with the hooter gone to signal the end of the game Belfast Harlequins had forced a flurry of short corners and with the final strike of the game equalised. The game was to be decided by the dreaded 1V1 penalties.And of course the drama was not to end there with both team’s out on their feet emotionally and physically for the 1V1s Daniel Graham was to emerge as one of the Portrane heroes keeping out 5 of Harlequins penalties and yet despite this Portrane also struggled in the penalties missing their opening 3 penalties until Captain fantastic Chris Neville who had an outstanding game throughout stepped up to cooly convert his 1V1 to bring utter relief to the Portrane team and small band of travelling but vocal supporters.