The last time Hermes won the Leinster Senior Cup, sponsored this season by Coca Cola, Caitriona Carey, one of their current Irish internationals, wasn't even born.
It was, perhaps, a little cruel to point this out to Hermes manager Joan Morgan, who happened to be in the 1978 line-up that beat Loreto in the final. "It wasn't 21 years ago . . . was it," she pleaded. Oh yes it was. When the club last made it to the final, in 1997, one Mary Logue scored the winner for Muckross four minutes into the game. This Sunday, the Irish captain lines out for Hermes against her former team-mates in the semi-finals of the competition at Grange Road, with Old Alexandra facing Glenanne in the day's first match.
Muckross, who beat Loreto 4-2 in last year's final, have dominated the competition in the 1990s, completing a five-in-a-row last year to bring their Leinster Senior Cup haul to 32. "They have a great record in this competition and have their sights set on it again," said Logue, who figured in all but last year's Cup triumphs for Muckross this decade. "I'm looking forward to the game but I hope it will be more open than our league match, which finished 0-0."
In the day's first semi-final Glenanne, who lost on penalty stokes to Loreto in last year's quarter-finals, meet league leaders Old Alexandra. When they beat Glenanne 2-0 in December, Alexandra went top of the Senior A table for the first time this season, and have only lost one match since, to Hermes in the Irish Senior Cup.
Having already wrapped up the league, Pegasus, on course for a repeat of last season's clean sweep of the trophies, will attempt to complete the second leg of the grand slam when they play Collegians in the Ulster Shield final at Jordanstown. The chances of Collegians, with two 5-0 league defeats by Pegasus behind them already this season, causing an upset look slim. In Munster, Harlequins and UCC are favourites to win their Senior Cup semi-finals tomorrow and set up their sixth final meeting in a row. Harlequins, though, will have to overcome a Church of Ireland side that is having a superb year in the league, while UCC would appear to have the easier task against Belvedere.
Leinster Senior Cup - Semi-finals (at Grange Road, Sunday): Old Alexandra v Glenanne, 1.0; Hermes v Muckross, 3.30.
Leinster League - Senior A: Trinity v Loreto, Santry Avenue, 11.0; Pembroke Wanderers v Genesis, Serpentine Avenue, 2.0; Railway Union v Clontarf, Park Avenue, 4.0. Senior B: Aer Lingus v Hermes II, ALSAA, 11.0; Muckross v Corinthian, Rathdown, 11.45; UCD v Pembroke Wanderers II, Belfield, 1.0; Loreto II v Avoca, Beaufort, 2.0; Maids v Railway Union II, Grange Road, 2.30. Sunday - Senior A: Pembroke Wanderers v Trinity, Serpentine Avenue, 4.0; Genesis v Railway Union, Park Avenue, 3.15.
Munster Senior Cup - Semi-finals: Harlequins v Church of Ireland, Farmers' Cross, 11.30; UCC v Belvedere, The Mardyke, 2.30.
Ulster Shield - Final: Pegasus v Collegians, Jordanstown, 1.0.
Ulster Senior League - Section One: Ards v Coleraine, Ards Leisure Centre, 4.0; Victorians v Enniskillen, Olympia Leisure Centre, 4.0. Section Two: Banbridge v Queen's, Havelock Park, 4.0.
