Sports digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Glenanne face tough trip to Sandymount

HOCKEY:Five months seems a long time to allow the country's most venerable competition to sit in cold storage. This weekend, however, the Irish Senior Cup breaks out again with the quarter-final stages set for Dublin, Belfast and Cork, writes Johnny Watterson.

In Dublin, Railway Union set up their biggest match of the season against the redoubtable Glenanne. Former Irish player and current coach Ian O’Keeffe has done a superb job at Park Avenue and for a team that was in Division Two not so long ago, fourth place in the Leinster league and the quarter-finals of the Irish Cup seems pretty good progress. Last time the teams met in Tallaght, Glenanne won 3-1, while back in November they drew 3-3 in Park Avenue.

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Glenanne now face a trip to Sandymount.

Irish senior Cup, quarter-finals: tomorrow – Railway Union v Glenanne, 14.00 Park Avenue; Lisnagarvey v Pembroke, 14.30 Comber Road; Cork Harlequins v Banbridge, 14.00 Harlequin Park; NICS v Instonians,14.30 Stormont.

Ward faces tense wait for Olympic wildcard

BOXING:Joe Ward will have a tense wait until at least May 20th to find out the decisions of the Tripartite Commission in relation to invitation places for the 2012 Olympics.

The Irish southpaw was controversially beaten by Turkey’s Bahram Muzaffer at the European AIBA Olympic qualifiers in Trabzon, Turkey, last week. The IABA lodged an unsuccessful protest at the decision, but there is still an outside chance that Ward could get an invitation to the 30th Olympiad. However, no decision will be made until all men’s and women’s qualifiers are completed.

The final Olympic qualifiers for men begin in Casablanca, Morocco, today and in Rio de Janerio on May 4th. The AIBA World Women’s Championships, which will act as the only Olympic qualifiers for female boxers, begins in Qinhuangdao, China, on May 9th where Katie Taylor and the Irish women’s team will compete.

Pegasus victory over UCD would give Boyles a memorable week

A week after Pegasus beat UCD on goal difference to a place in the Irish Hockey League semi-finals the teams meet in the quarter-finals of the Irish Senior Cup at Belfield tomorrow, writes Mary Hannigan.

A year ago the Belfast side got the better of the students at the semi-final stage, before going on to beat Hermes in the decider.

Should Pegasus prevail again it will complete a memorable week for Arlene Boyles after she was named assistant to recently appointed interim Irish coach Denis Pritchard. Boyles will work with Pritchard until a permanent appointment is made, starting at June’s Investec Cup in London. “Hopefully I can bring some of my playing experience at international level to the coaching side of the senior women,” she said yesterday.

Irish Senior Cup, quarter-finals: tomorrow – UCD v Pegasus, Belfield, 1.0; Old Alexandra v Loreto, Milltown, 1.0; Armagh v Railway Union, Ardmore, 1.0; Trinity v Queens, Weston, 1.0.