Women's Hockey Weekend previews: Eight of the country's top teams begin their quest for a place in the all-Ireland Club Championship finals this weekend when they play the first legs of their quarter-finals, with Pegasus, who completed a five-in-a-row in the competition last season, away to Munster League runners-up Bandon tomorrow.
With their full complement of World Cup players - Arlene Boyles, Karen Humphreys, Pamela Magill, Katharine Maybin and Claire McMahon - back in action, the Belfast side would have been at full strength this weekend but for the withdrawal of Kim Mills from the squad after a "falling out" with the club.
Pegasus are also embroiled in a dispute with the authorities over the scheduling of the Irish Junior Cup final and the all-Ireland Junior League finals, both of which, bizarrely, were held last weekend. Having reached the cup final, which Pegasus II won by beating Three Rock, the club's seconds were unable to defend their League finals' title, their place taken in the competition by Belfast Harlequins II, the eventual winners.
The club was, understandably, angered by the clash of events, agreed by the fixtures secretaries of each branch at the start of the season, and has written a letter of protest to the Irish Hockey Association through the Ulster branch.
Bandon will hope that these off-the-field matters will take the edge out of Pegasus's game tomorrow, but it's highly unlikely. If anything, when the club has felt hard done by in the past it has only served to galvanise the team and spur them on to yet more success.
Elsewhere, Cork Harlequins and Hermes will be looking to avenge their Irish Senior Cup defeats by Loreto and Belfast Harlequins, respectively, in the league quarter-finals. The Munster champions, who lost to Loreto in the cup final, will take hope from last season's turn of events: they lost to the Dubliners in the cup semi-finals but later beat them, handsomely, in the club finals.
Hermes should prove to be a far greater obstacle for Belfast Harlequins this time around. When they lost 4-1 to the Ulster side in the cup they were without several key players; most, though, will be available tomorrow, as will Harlequins' captain and goalkeeper Jenny Gibson who has abandoned a golfing holiday in the Algarve to play.
Two of the teams to have inflicted rare defeats on Pegasus this season, Ards (4-2 winners in the Ulster League) and Old Alexandra (3-0 victors in the quarter-finals of the Irish Senior Cup) meet in the day's fourth quarter-final at Milltown.
ALL-IRELAND CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS: Quarter-finals, first legs: Loreto v Cork Harlequins, Beaufort, 1.0; Belfast Harlequins v Hermes, Deramore Park, 1.0; Old Alexandra v Ards, Milltown, 1.30; Bandon v Pegasus, Bandon Grammar School, 12.0.
SOUTH-EAST CUP FINAL: Sunday: Wexford v Enniscorthy, Scanlon Park, 1.0.
