Weekend sports preview

After all the excitement of Thursday evening’s Sports Awards at the Villa Marina, it’s back to coalface this weekend with plenty of action on offer.

We start this week’s preview with hockey and the island under-16 boys team. They head off the rock this week in search of silverware.

The talented teens take on Midlands’ side Hampton-in-Arden in the Tier Two Plate final at midday on Sunday. Best of luck to them!

It’s the final main Saturday of the domestic hockey league season. The majority of the men’s and women’s titles have already been sown up, but there are still some placing and relegation issues to be decided. Games are taking place at all the island’s synthetic pitches throughout the day.

Another of the winter sports drawing to a close is rugby.

There’s only two games scheduled for Saturday afternoon. One sees Vagabonds’ women’s side host Leigh at Ballafletcher, the Women’s NC 1 North West encounter kicking off at 12.30pm.

The other match takes place at Mooragh Park at 4pm, with a new Ellan Vannin Colts (under-18s) side make their home debut with a friendly against visitors Wrexham.

In football, Corinthians and St John’s go head-to-head for a place in next weekend’s FA Cup final against Peel. Kick-off in that one is 2pm.

There’s also plenty of league action, as the latter side aim to stretch their lead in the Canada Life Premier League with a visit to bottom side DHSOB.

There’s further fixtures in DPS Division Two and the two combination leagues on Saturday, while the Women’s FA Cup kicks off on Sunday.

FC Isle of Man have a gruelling weekend ahead of them as they play two games in as many days.

The Ravens travel to Lower Breck on Saturday afternoon, before facing Longridge Town in a rescheduled game on Sunday.

Paul Jones has picked a 22-man squad for the Manx side’s final two away games of their North West Counties League Premier Division campaign.

Netball finishes its domestic season with a flurry on Sunday with the Judi Clark-Wilson Charity Cup day.

The top two in each of the island’s four senior leagues face-off at the NSC, starting with the Division Two pacesetters at 9am.

Finally, for the motorsport fans among you Peveril MCC is hosting a round of the ACU Centre championship at Knock Froy, Santon on Sunday at 10am.

There’s also some youth trials action on Saturday afternoon at Crowe’s Yard in Foxdale.