Cookstown and Queen’s are champions of shortened season

COOKSTOWN and Queen’s have officially been crowned Ulster Hockey men’s and women’s champions respectively.

The season was brought to a premature halt due to the coronavirus pandemic and Irish Hockey revealed last month that no more games would be played in the 2019-20 campaign.

The provincial divisions were decided through percentage of points won, with Cookstown and Queen’s taking top honours.

Both were leading their respective divisions before play was brought to a halt and their titles were confirmed yesterday when Ulster Hockey published the final tables.

Mossley and Rainey will both be relegated from the women’s Premier League, to be replaced by Senior One winners Armagh and runners-up Ballymena.

Bangor and Ballynahinch are set to drop out of the men’s Premier League with Belfast Harlequins and NICS going up.

The province was due to hold a Clubs’ Forum to discuss a potential restructure of the league pyramid, however that has been postponed with the Premier League to remain the same format for the 2020-21 campaign.

The Competitions Committee will, however, review the men’s second tier, the Intermediate League, prior to the campaign, while the potential for a full-season IHL2 further muddies the waters.

In the women’s divisions, relegated CI and Dromore will be replaced in Senior One by NICS and Bangor.

Limavady and Larne will drop into Senior Three, with Kilkeel and PSNI going in the opposite direction. PSNI were the only senior team to jump into promotion places after the points equalisation. They had won 30 points from 14 games and jumped above Cookstown, who had 31 from 15 matches.

It was a men’s double for Cookstown, whose Seconds edged Lisnagarvey to the Junior One title on goal difference.

Both sides had 33 points from their 12 matches and had won their home fixture against their rivals 4-3. That left goal difference as the determining factor, Cookstown at +43 to Garvey’s +39.

Pegasus Seconds finished top of women’s Junior One, despite earning two points fewer than Lisnagarvey Seconds, who had played two matches more.