Favourite's role for Lisnagarvey

Mens' HockeyLisnagarvey are the new Irish Senior Cup favourites after their shock quarter-final win over Annadale at Lough Moss. Cork Harlequins also enhanced their reputation as serious challengers with a 7-2 win over Glenanne at St Mark's school in Tallaght.

While Lisnagarvey's victory, after a penalty shoot-out, should make other teams feel like it has opened up the tournament a little more, Ulster side NICS must also be watched closely. A semi-final place for the civil service team following their 3-2 extra-time victory over Cookstown, another surprise, represents the farthest the team have come in the Senior Cup for many years.

In the final match of the four quarter-finals, Dublin's Three Rock Rovers travelled to Instonians more in hope than expectation but found little that could undermine their Belfast hosts, with two goals from Chris Barnes sending Rovers out of the cup.

But Annadale's exit will hearten the remaining teams. Although they were behind to a goal before half-time from Philip Stirling, the home team came back into the match in the second half, hitting an equaliser through Ian Lewers. The game went through extra time before going into the penalty shoot-out, and Lisnagarvey came up trumps by the narrowest of margins, 5-4. They will meet Instonians in the next round, while seven-goal Harlequins travel to Belfast for their semi-final against NICS (Jesse Jonjer hit their winner).

As expected, Glenanne presented a robust challenge to the Cork side but came up a little short against a team that contains a significant portion of the Munster provincial squad, which will face Leinster and Ulster next week.

While Paul Fitzpatrick hit two scores for Glenanne, Harlequins' depth and reservoir of talent saw them through with David Eakins hitting four goals, one of them a penalty, David Egner knocking in two goals and Edward Gash one.

With Three Rock Rovers out of action in the Leinster Senior League, Monkstown took advantage with a 2-0 win over Corinthians. The victory over the second-placed side puts Monkstown into third place, with most clubs now left with two games to play provincially before the playoffs. Trinity are second from the bottom after drawing 2-2 with YMCA, a point behind Railway Union and 11 ahead of UCD.