Fanagan returns for Dublin

Whatever about the two counties crossing paths in a Gaelic football context next summer, an altogether more immediate sporting assignment for Dublin and Kildare is the Leinster Inter-county Championship semi-final at Portmarnock on Sunday.

Dublin are captained by former footballer Paddy Gogarty, and will enter the fray on the north Dublin links as favourites. Indeed, Walker Cup player Jody Fanagan, who missed the quarter-final win over Offaly, returns to the team and will use the match as final preparation for the international two-man team event in Venezuela next week when he will be partnered by Irish champion Ken Kearney. Fanagan and Kearney fly to South America early next week. Fanagan and fellow Irish internationals Noel Fox and Michael McGinley form the backbone of the Dublin team. Another international, Bryan Omelia, remains unavailable due to a neck injury - however, the Newlands player would be available for the final in the New Year should Dublin progress to that stage.

Kildare have recorded two good wins - against holders Wicklow and Wexford - in the campaign to date, and captain Peter Craig is confident his players will put up a good show: "The guys are playing well. I know we'll be the underdogs against Dublin, especially on their own course, but we're looking forward to the challenge."

A quartet from Bodenstown - Maurice Kelly, Luke Bird, Warren Kelly and Niall Gorry - along with Richard Kelly (Athy), Turlough Boylan (Naas) and Declan Moran (The Island) comprise the Kildare squad for the match. Kildare have already had one session over the Portmarnock course and will travel up to Dublin again on Friday for another familiarisation round.

The other Leinster semi-final between Meath and Laois has been deferred until Sunday week.

Meanwhile, a sign that UCD's strength in a golfing context is very much on the up came when they managed to win their annual match with Lahinch for only the fourth time in 35 meetings.

Birr's Justin Kehoe, who recently took up a scholarship at the Belfield campus, led the way with a 2 and 1 win over Arthur Pierse while Liam Brady (Royal Dublin) secured a one-hole win over South of Ireland champion Patrick Collier. Ronan Flood, Fergal Costellow, Edward Lynch and Brett Desmond were UCD's other winners, while Lahinch's winners were Dennis Creedon and Donal Quinn. UCD won the match 6-2.

Dun Laoghaire captured the final title of the ILGU Eastern District's Autumn Teams when staging a miraculous recovery to beat Howth in the Townsend Foursomes at Hermitage last Thursday.

Joan Burgess and Fiona Newport won the top match for Howth by one hole over Terry Sexton and Marie Igoe, while Laura Daly and Jackie Power beat Kay Deasy and Breda Mullally 6 and 5 in the second match. So, it all came down to the bottom match - and Howth pair Carmel McCanna and Christine Kerr appeared to have the upper hand when three up with just four holes to play.

However, Dun Laoghaire duo Nicky Robinson and Hazel Higgins produced a remarkable fightback and forced the match into extra holes and Dun Laoghaire secured the trophy at the 19th with a par four where Higgins played a magnificent eight iron over trees onto the green.