North County, arguably the club of the season last year with the Royal Liver Irish Senior Cup and the Leinster Senior League Lewis Traub Trophy to start the silverware collection at Balrothery, are at home to North West side Glendermott in the preliminary round of the all-island knock-out competition today.

In normal circumstances, this may not look like a major challenge; Glendermott's record in the cup is modest, but a couple of recent acquisitions may indicate that skipper Paul Mooney and his North County team won't be taking anything for granted.

Glendermott have recruited the Ireland seamer Gary Neely from Donemana and international all-rounder Derek Heasley from Lisburn.

At the time of writing, North County were forced to delay selection because of injury, and will definitely be without Andre Botha, whose damaged ankle is certain to keep him out of action for at least six weeks.

To say that Botha could be missed is a major understatement; he scored 111 not out when North County defeated Merrion to take their first Leinster senior trophy and top-scored with 66 when North County beat Cliftonville in the Irish Senior Cup final.

At nearby Milverton, The Hills seem not likely to be unduly troubled in their preliminary round match against visitors UCC. Captain Mark Clinton leads a fairly predictable line-up which includes the evergreen Matt Dwyer.

In today's other preliminary round match, Old Belvedere make the long journey south to take on Cork County at The Mardyke.

The weekend's fourth preliminary round match, between Railway Union and Cork Harlequins, due to be played at Park Avenue today, has been switched to College Park tomorrow.