AT the end of a tempest blown week, the Church & General National Hurling League gets underway tomorrow with the first series of matches in Division Three.

It is ironic that this season, the first to be based on a calendar year, should commence, in exactly the conditions that the two year experiment is designed to avoid but it is unrealistic to expect radical improvements until later in the year.

The reforms were designed to help the weaker counties by providing competitive hurling on hard ground in good weather and by inaugurating new championships at intermediate and junior level. Derry, one of the counties apparently likely to benefit, however, are not impressed. Not only did the county bitterly oppose the NHL proposals at Central Council but team manager Hugo MacOscar is similarly unimpressed.

MacOscar (32), who would still be playing but for an arthritic hip took the team to last year's All Ireland B championship. They begin their campaign to escape from Division Three against Armagh at Celtic Park tomorrow.

"The weather we're facing going out in is the worst I've seen. If it wasn't being played on a pitch like Celtic Park, it wouldn't go ahead. I have found - and talking to my counterparts in Antrim and Meath they'd agree - that after the championship ended, a lot of counties rested players and many players have lost their edge with the stick. They've been left a long time without stick work and only now are they beginning to find sharpness."

Having absorbed the post B championship celebration and being aware that the title has not previously provided any gateway to the big time for Derry's predecessors, MacOscar feels lukewarm about the new intermediate championship which Derry will be allowed to enter should they lose their first round senior match against Down on June 22nd.

"The players don't even know we're in it. I'd be happier winning that Down match and losing the Ulster final than winning the AllIreland intermediate championship. I see my role finished whenever we are knocked out of the senior championship."

In the meantime, League matters will occupy his mind. He believes that five or six teams in the division are capable of beating each other. The trend in recent years has been for one team to make the running all through the season because with only one promotion place available, any defeat is likely to prove costly.

For a long time two counties Carlow and Westmeath, alternated the places in Division Two and Three. Last season saw a change with London winning promotion and Down, surprisingly for recent All Ireland semi finalists, slipped to the third. They will be general favourites to bounce back but competition looks stiffer and less hierarchical than recently.

MacOscar is aware of the possibilities but apprehensive about how his team will pick up the threads of last year's success.

"We've been at several functions for the B and the euphoria is only beginning to die down. It reminded me that after winning the Sam Maguire, Ulster counties did generally badly in the following year's championship. Having achieved what they set out to achieve, have they still the same hunger. In challenges recently against Meath and Antrim, I haven't been happy with the forwards."

His personnel strength is affected by the number of dual players in the county. Many of the best footballers are also excellent hurlers but are seldom available to the county. The best known hurler is Oliver Collins who nearly when a Railway Cup for Ulster two years, ago and who received a Players. All Star nomination last November.

"I'm trying to decrease dependence on him," says MacOscar. "I'd like to move Oliver closer to goal and let others do the hard work for him. There's still a few dual players in the panel. I mean if Seamus Downey came into training and said `I'm available', I'd be happy to take him. But last year, despite what some people said, we had the best hurlers in Derry on the team. Others (who had concentrated on football) had lost their stick work."

Elsewhere in the division, Roscommon, who have been marginal contenders recently, host Carlow whose current form is less than inspired. Wicklow, doing well in the Kehoe Cup, should be too strong for visiting Louth and the final match is also expected to be a home win with Kildare taking on newly promoted Donegal.