BEFORE the hockey season's three majors - the Irish Senior Cup final, the Interprovincial Championship and the all Ireland league play-offs - Easter brings its traditional more leisured activity.
The weekend will be busier, however, for Instonians who have travelled to Gibraltar hoping to gain a berth for Avoca or Lisnagarvey in the A division of the European Cup Winners' Cup next year. Cobra Vienna and ultimately, Royal Leopold of Belgium appear to be the main obstacles to the sharp Instonians side's chances of success in the B division tournament. With central figures in Neil Cooke and Paul Hollway, it is virtually the same team which won the Irish Cup a year ago and which is poised to take the Ulster league title this term.
Pegasus, Ireland's representatives in the women's Cup Winners' Cup in Rotterdam, face strong opposition from Berliner HC in Pool A but should pick up points against Stade Francais and could clinch a semi final berth at the expense of Sardinero (Spain).
Elsewhere, it is festival time, particularly in Holland, where the revived Irish Buccaneers, notably, will relish top class fare. In Dublin, Corinthians Arthur Stanley and Terry Quigley are hosts to more than 30 teams for their Budweiser sponsored jamboree. It would seem that MTV Braunschweig will make an impact, though there is a hearty representation from England and one wonders how the UCD Graduates will acquit themselves. There is also a more intimate Beamish backed tournament being staged by Monkstown at Rathdown.
While Monkstown return, unbeaten, to the top division of the Leinster League, accompanied by St Brendan's/Phoenix Park, it has been a season of achievement, too, for Naas, the Intermediate Cup winners who also find themselves gaining promotion with Skerries to second division competition.
Captained by Charlie Hill, and featuring father and son John and Carlos Dunne as well as Limerick's Pat Herbert among five dextrous hurlers, Naas (reformed in 1986) will be particularly well matched with Carlow and Kilkenny next season.
The benefits of the astro pitch at Kilkenny College should soon yield better fortune for the Black and Ambers. The Kilkenny senior girls are already enjoying much success.
With Dundalk GS (Leinster Schools Senior B boys champions) now suitably equipped, Waterford - and the north west's Raphoe - remain two outposts badly in need of a proper surface. At least, the junior girls of Newtown (Waterford) have shown true grit in winning three southeast schools trophies for Jackie Stokes.
. Simon Kershaw, left winger on the Pembroke Wanderers second XI which heat Banbridge II in the Irish Junior Cup final last Saturday, added a medal to the family collection. His father, Andrew, the IHU honorary secretary, figured on the Instonians II team which captured the trophy in 1978.
. Avoca veteran Mark Cullen has played in the last 14 Leinster Senior League campaigns, in which the Blackrock club have won the title nine times and have finished runners up in the other five.
