MEN'S HOCKEY LEINSTER SENIOR LEAGUE:THE QUESTION this season is what team can front up to Pembroke. On the road to becoming a super-club, the Serpentine Avenue side are setting standards when it comes to building a team capable of travelling to Europe and putting Ireland on the map.
With Andy McConnell following in the footsteps of Gordon Elliott in the 1990s by moving down the mountain from Grange Road, Pembroke have been further strengthened. International Adam Pritchard has also joined bringing the side’s tally of international players to eight, which has not been seen since, perhaps, Lisnagarvey in their heyday.
Clontarf will be the first team to experience just how strong Pembroke are as they travel to Ballsbridge for the first league match of the season. It couldn’t be a more difficult start for them.
Three Rock Rovers, who are bringing in two Dutch players and possibly a player from South Africa, have lost Phelie Maguire and Mitch Darling to Belgian club KHC Leuven, while Glenanne, who meet UCD, welcome Filip Jaros from Monkstown and Mark McGuinness from Fingal.
That match gets underway at 1.30pm at the National Hockey Stadium, where the students are now under the stewardship of South African John McInroy.
Corinthian meet Fingal in Whitechurch, where they hope to continue their scoring spree. In the two rounds of the Neville Cup played they have netted 14 goals.
On a sad note, for Pembroke in particular, one of the best players of his generation, Harry Cahill, passed away during the week aged 79. Cahill was an exceptionally talented goalkeeper whose international career stretched over a 20 year period, during which time he earned 72 Irish caps before his playing days came to an end in 1973.
He was selected to play for Britain in three Olympic Games and also played with Ireland in the first European Championships, when he was 40. He was inducted into the Irish Hockey Association Hall of Fame in 2006.
SATURDAY:Leinster Senior league: Division 1: Corinthian v Fingal 2.30 White Church; Pembroke v Clontarf, 2.45 Serpentine Ave; Three Rock Rovers v Railway Union, 3.00 Grange Road; UCD v Glenanne, 1.30 UCD; YMCA v Monkstown, 2.00 Claremont Rd Munster Senior League: Division 1: C of I B v C of I A, 2.30 Garryduff; Cork Harlequins B v Cork Harlequins A, 2.00 Farmers Cross; Bandon v UCC, 3.30, Bandon Grammar School.
IRELAND DREWwith France in the second of their two friendly internationals in Paris yesterday. Having lost badly 6-1 last Wednesday evening, Ireland came back to salvage something in a 1-1 draw with the hosts.
