Banbridge retained the Irish men’s EY Champions Trophy title and a return to the Euro Hockey League’s next season as they defeated Lisnagarvey in front of their home crowd at Havelock Park.

They survived a big semi-final battle on Saturday to reach the final, defeating YMCA in a shoot-out after normal time ended 0-0.

In the decider, Philip Brown gave Bann an early lead from a corner but Garvey were level by half-time from a corner move of their own, Peter McKibbin scoring from near the baseline.

The winner came in the third quarter with Josh Moffett getting a great touch to a ball fired into the circle, making it 2-1.

And that is how it remained to the final whistle as Luke Roleston made a string of strong corner stops, brilliantly keeping out a low deflection move in the last five minutes.

On the women’s side, Róisín Upton’s penalty stroke five minutes from time earned Railway Union a spot in Europe as the Irish women’s national winners as they dethroned Loreto with a 1-0 EY Champions Trophy.

Loreto had won the regular season title to earn the other Euro spot with Railway their nearest chasers through the season.

In an extremely close final, it was Railway’s newest addition who got the crucial goal with Upton – who made her debut for the club last month – writing herself quickly into the club’s history books.

They will find out in due course whether this result will be confirmed as bringing them a first Euro Hockey League place.

Western Wildcats will represent Scotland in the Euro Hockey League next season after beating Grange 1-0 in the men’s Grand Final at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre.

The game was settled in the second quarter as the prolific attacker Fraser Moran’s shot on the turn made it all the way to the backboard following excellent approach work from Callum Duke and Rob Harwood.

Gavin Sommerville made some super saves to keep it that way while his defence helped keep out a final minute corner to ensure they will return to the EHL next season.

In the women’s final, Watsonians won 4-0 against Clydesdale Western to take the primary European spot from Scotland.

Katie Stott broke the deadlock before Anni Arthur added another. In the closing stages, Millie Berndes-Cade and Sarah Jamieson made the game extra safe.

** Picture: Mark Pugh/Scottish Hockey

Der Club an der Alster and Mannheimer HC topped their respective pools in the German women’s Bundesliga to set themselves up as the teams to beat as their season enters the playoff phase.

For Alster, they had a 10-point lead over Rot-Weiss Köln in their section as they cruised to a 4-0 win over Uhlenhorst Mülheim last Sunday with Linda Cobano striking on the double.

It puts them through to a quarter-final date with UHC Hamburg who ended up fourth in Pool A and ended their regular season with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Grossflotbekker THGC.

The winner of Alster and UHC will then go on to face either Harvestehuder THC and Düsseldorfer HC in the top half of the draw.

For Mannheim, they hammered the Zehlendorfer Wasps 8-0 with Charlotte Gerstenhöfer and Lucia Jimenez both scoring twice. Their next opponent will be Berliner SC – fourth in Pool B – in the last eight.  Mannheim won Pool A ahead of Düsseldorf by six points.

The other part of their half of the draw features Flotbek and Rot-Weiss Köln. In each case, the first leg takes place next Sunday with the return legs happening the following week.

On the men’s side, Uhlenhorst Mülheim ended with the best record from their initial set of 16 matches with 37 points with three other clubs ending on 36 points.

That came in spite of a shoot-out loss to Harvestehuder THC as their nearest rivals in Pool A, Rot-Weiss Köln, lost 2-0 to SC Frankfurt 80.

As such, Uhlenhorst will meet Club an der Alster in the quarter-finals with either Hamburger Polo Club or UHC Hamburg waiting in the final four for the winners.

The top half of the draw has Rot-Weiss facing Crefelder HTC and Mannheimer HC up against HTHC.

Grange retained the Scottish men’s Premiership title and a place in Europe next year with a resounding 7-0 win over fourth placed Uddingston.

That result pushed Grange four points ahead of challengers Edinburgh University, and so whatever result the Edinburgh students achieved against Western Wildcats at Auchenhowie in a later game, they would be unable to overhaul Grange at the top.

The title was effectively sealed in the first quarter when David Nairn and Dylan Bean from the spot put the champions two up.  Jamie Green added a third just before the interval with a deflection at a penalty corner.

The procession of goals continued in the second half through Calum Lothian, Nairn again for his own second, Robbie Croll at a penalty corner and a final strike from Bean for a magnificent seven.

Grange will onw be the team to beat in the end of season playoffs where they will be joined by Edinburgh Uni, Western Wildcats and Watsonians.

On the women’s side, Watsonians had already been crowned champions and they finished their league season unbeaten with a 5-2 success against GHK.

Their playoff top four line-up features Edinburgh University, Clydesdale Western and Western Wildcats.

The Irish playoff stage is set with Banbridge and Loreto both looking to retain their national titles next week and make a return to the Euro Hockey League for the 2024/25 season.

Both enjoyed a weekend off as the EY Champions Trophy quarter-finals took place, a phase which both clubs bypassed due to their respective wins in the regular EY Hockey League season.

For Banbridge, they will play YMCA who reached the final four phase for the first time in their history following a late 1-0 win over Three Rock Rovers thanks to a Grant Glutz volley in the last four minutes.

The other half of the draw sees Lisnagarvey come up against Monkstown. The latter side finished the regular season in sixth place but they picked up an impressive 2-1 win over the Glens with Geoff Cole and Jeremy Duncan scoring the defining goals in the first 10 minutes.

On the women’s side, Loreto will meet UCD in their final four encounter after the student side made it through their quarter-final game against Pembroke following a shoot-out.

Catholic Institute completed the semi-finalists with a 3-1 success against Old Alex courtesy of Ciara Moloney, Tory Byrne and Leah Clery strikes.

They will meet Railway Union in the final four with all of those fixtures set to take place at Banbridge’s Havelock Park on Saturday with the final happening a day later on Sunday.

SCHC stormed to the Gold Cup title on Thursday evening as they swept aside AH&BC Amsterdam 5-1 at the Wagener Stadium to earn the first trophy of the Dutch domestic season.

A pair of Yibbi Jansen penalty corners set the tone as they built a 2-0 lead in the first 21 minutes and they never looked back.

In the third quarter, Ginella Zerbo robbed the ball in the Amsterdam circle and slapped home the chance for the third goal.

The 4-0 came via Laurien Leurink’s simple baseline assist for Pien Dicke to finish off a chance and then were five clear with five minutes to go. Trijntje Beljaars had all the space to fire home a backhand shot, rendering Floor de Haan’s late corne goal a mere consolation.

The result was Amsterdam’s biggest defeat at the Wagener Stadium for 14 years.

For both clubs, the focus will quickly shift to the Hoofdklasse on Saturday for SCHC as they come up against Oranje-Rood while Amsterdam face SV Kampong on Sunday, both pursuing Den Bosch with all sides covered by just two points.

For next season, SCHC have already added Dutch international Marleen Jochems and rising star Noor Knoop to their roster while Amsterdam have extended the contracts of both Freeke Moes and Gabrielle Mosch for three more seasons.