Cork C of I landed their first league win since November 2017 to give their hopes of remaining in the division a real boost as they won 3-2 at Cookstown.
John Jermyn, Stephen Parker and Thomas Chalumeau handed them a 3-0 lead which Cookstown began to eat into with Callum Anderson and Mark Crooks trimmed the advantage to just one but C of I held on for the three points.
The result halves their gaps to Cookstown and YMCA and they now face back-to-back games against Monkstown to try and record another win to get give them real hope.
At the top, the leading quartet all won to strengthen their claims for an EY Champions Trophy spot.
Lisnagarvey are already there courtesy of late efforts in each half at Monkstown to win out 2-0, Andy Williamson and James Lorimer getting the goals.
Three Rock Rovers put big daylight between them and Pembroke with an 8-1 win in the battle between fourth and fifth place in the table. Rovers led 5-0 at half-time with Luke Madeley scoring a pair of drag-flicks. The Rathfarnham club were 8-0 up before Pembroke scored through Harry Spain late in the tie.
Glenanne eked out a 2-1 win over YMCA at St Andrew’s as Cedric Jakobi scored twice from penalty corners in the second half. Earlier, they had been wasteful in front of goal with Stephen Brownlow missing a stroke but they eventually made use of their 10 penalty corners.
At 2-0, YM fought back with Sam Hyland scoring a stroke to set up a rousing last 10 minutes but they could not find an equaliser.
Banbridge ran up an 8-0 win over out-of-form Annadale who have not won in their last seven games. Eugene Magee, John McKee and Josh Moffett scored a brace each. They remain in equal second with two games to go, three points off Lisnagarvey.
