Ireland's leading umpire, Ray O'Connor, has been appointed to officiate in his second Olympic Games. He will be going to Sydney in September with over 100 international matches to his credit, including the 1996 Olympic final between The Netherlands and Spain in Atlanta. O'Connor (42), who has also been much involved at World Cup and European level - notably the Germany-Holland championship decider in Dublin in 1995 - will have another important assignment before going to Sydney. He will be tuning up for the Olympics in the Champions Trophy tournament in Amsterdam in early summer.
"I must get down again to some serious training," he said after taking charge of Saturday's Leinster Senior League game in which Monkstown gained an authoritative 3-0 win over Avoca at Rathdown.
Galvanised by the registration of the former YMCA and Pembroke midfielder, Turlough O Siochain, Monkstown look well capable of challenging Corinthians for the third berth in the all-Ireland play-offs.
Making his debut in the back four, O Siochain delivered an opening after half an hour for Simon Cox to fire the home side into the lead, to be followed immediately by a second goal from Ian Stuart. So, two down at the break, Avoca could offer no more than stoic resistance from Colm Brady and David Hanna before a scuffed Cox shot increased the margin.
Meanwhile Three Rock Rovers topped up their Statoil points to a respectable level with a last-gasp 3-2 defeat of Railway Union at Park Avenue. Rovers, though, remain in a transitional stage (with Andrew Macken being the latest apprentice to make some impression) and they rode their luck to recover from a 2-0 deficit.
Railway, missing three of their South Africans, were more robust, through Mark Henderson in particular against his old clubmates, and more penetrative. Paul O'Brien (from a right-wing thrust by Stevie Moulton) and Stephen Jones (short corner) scored early in the second half, but Three Rock roused themselves for Angus Dunlop and Liam Canning to reply from set pieces and then, with little time left, Peter McConnell pounced on a difficult clearance to snatch the winner.
There was consolation for Railway in that their second XI, captained by Stephen Hiles, brought off the best achievement of the day in the Irish Junior Cup, beating Lisnagarvey II 2-1 at Blaris. Their scorers, after the home team had taken a first-minute lead, were Stephen Jones and Teddy Lynch who, with Karl Kinch, had played in the senior match at noon and then travelled to Lisburn.
Aer Lingus refused to be depressed by their under-21 cup final defeat by Glenanne as they resisted sturdily at senior league level to lose only by 2-0 to Pembroke at Serpentine Avenue. John Leavy was prominent in the rearguard action.
