It was a successful day for the home teams in the Ulster Hockey Men’s Premiership with the hosts coming out on top in all three fixtures this weekend.
Belfast Harlequins continued their recent form as they thrashed Newry Olympic 6-1 at Deramore.
An early goal from Antoine Hirschland opened the scoring in the closing stages of the first quarter before Michael Patterson doubled their lead two minutes later.
Newry managed to get back in the game as they got a goal of their own at the beginning of the second period. However, it proved to only be a consolation strike for the team who currently find themselves bottom of the league.
Quins soon restored their two-goal advantage through Chris Lemon before James Hutchinson, Paddy Jack and Aaron Murphy added to the goals for a dominant win.
Elsewhere Queen’s University hosted Kilkeel in a 5-3 thriller at Malone Playing Fields.
Despite conceding first, the students made a swift turnaround and led 4-1 with a hat-trick from Conor Irwin and a strike from Scott McCabe.
With both teams continuing to attack in numbers the County Down side managed to grab two goals back and make it 4-3.
However, Queen’s managed to restore their two-goal lead with a goal from Harry Scott to make it 5-3. From there they managed to hold on for all three points.
In the final game of the day South Antrim made it three wins in four games as they beat Civil Service 4-1.
The Lisburn side had goals scored by Andrew Farrell, Max Taylor and a brace from James Brown, but were unable to keep a clean sheet as Kent Irwin was on hand to net for the visiting side.
The result keeps NICS in eighth place meanwhile the hosts move into third having overtaken Portadown who didn’t play this weekend.
In the Intermediate League Antrim came unstuck as they were beaten 2-0 at home to CIYMS, Saintfield beat Portrush 4-0 and PSNI lost to a travelling Raphoe side 2-1 at Newforge Country Club.
That means CIYMS now move eight points ahead of today’s opponents but stay in fifth. Meanwhile Saintfield climb to third and Raphoe extend their lead at the top of the table to eleven points.
