Edinburgh clean sweep in the hockey Scottish Cup

IT WAS an Edinburgh clean sweep in the Scottish Cup finals at Glasgow Green, Grange went to a penalty shoot-out to settle their affair with city rivals Inverleith, while Edinburgh University saw off Milne Craig Clydesdale Western 4-1 in the women’s final.
Edinburgh University made it a capital double by lifting the womens trophy. Picture: John DevlinEdinburgh University made it a capital double by lifting the womens trophy. Picture: John Devlin
Edinburgh University made it a capital double by lifting the womens trophy. Picture: John Devlin

After a nervy start to the final, the derby suddenly burst into life with a combination of fortune and opportunism. A speculative ball into the Grange circle came off the foot of Rob Barr, the Grange defence waited for the umpire’s whistle, but Phil Hall picked up the loose ball and fired it into the net for Inverleith’s opener. Within a minute Grange were reeling again, an enterprising cross from the left was deflected in by a diving Haddyn Cartmill.

Grange shook out of their lethargy in the second half and came back into the contest at their first penalty corner, Spaniard Ventayol’s direct drag flick flew past Neil Durno to bring the score back to 2-1. And with 11 minutes left, the ball broke to Frank Ryan and the Irishman finished with a reverse stick effort.

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The running penalty competition was a complete disaster for Inverleith, four of their players drew a blank while Jaume Ventayol and teenager Hamish Imrie found the net to take a winning 2-0 lead for Grange.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh University ran away with a comfortable 4-1 victory against a lacklustre Western to win the first piece of silverware in the club’s history. After some early pressure Louise Campbell fired in a shot which fortunately deflected in off the stick of Western defender Anne Eadie for the opener. The students continued to dominate proceedings, Campbell in particular was a thorn in Western’s side, and midway through the half a reverse stick shot by Mairi Drummond eluded Western’s Louise Duffy.

Fiona Bruce’s penalty corner shot was blocked by goalkeeper Lucy Camlin only for Anna-Mae Morton to force the ball home fro Western. Any hint of a comeback was effectively stifled after a speculative shot by Heather Lang from a narrow angle seemed to elude Duffy to give the students a 3-1 lead at the interval.

Edinburgh continued to control proceedings in the second half and should have increased their lead Lang, Drummond along with Becky Dru and Waverley Miller from penalty corners all spurned chances. However, with 12 minutes left Edinburgh finally got their long-awaited fourth strike, captain Camilla Lyttle deflecting the ball into the roof of the net.