Ulster hold advantage

WOMENS HOCKEY: After Munster's interest in the competition was ended in the third round last month Leinster and Ulster, with four clubs each in the last eight, will fight it out in tomorrow's Irish Senior Cup quarter-finals.

In terms of home advantage Ulster have the edge, with three of their teams hosting their ties and the fourth, Coleraine, involved in an all-Ulster affair at the Antrim Forum against Randalstown. Old Alexandra and Railway Union meet in an all-Leinster tie at Milltown, thus guaranteeing each province at least one representative in the semi-finals.

Hermes, who have lost two finals in the last three years, travel north to play Ulster League strugglers Victorians while Loreto, the 2002 and 2003 winners, face the trickiest away trip of all - they play the 2001 cup winners Ballymoney at the Joey Dunlop Centre, where eight senior internationals, four on each team, will be involved.

Railway, conquerors of cup holders Pegasus in the last round, are one of three clubs in the quarter-finals never to have won the cup (Randalstown and Coleraine are the others), although perhaps only the parents of the current Victorians team will remember the club's sole success in the competition back in 1962.

Included in Alexandra's squad for the game against Railway are three survivors from their last appearance in a final, when they lost to Pegasus in 1998, Hazel Agar, Gillian O'Shea and Trish Conway.

While Conway, suffering from sciatica, is a slight doubt for the game she is intent on what could be her final appearance in the Irish Senior Cup. After 14 seasons with Alexandra, Conway is moving to London in a week for work reasons.

Conway first appeared for Alexandra in the 1991-92 season, when she was in fifth year in The High School, the season after the club won the treble, a haul that included the last of the club's six Irish Cup successes.

Since then, though, an Irish Cup medal has eluded Conway and her team-mates, with Pegasus (five times), Hermes (twice), Loreto (twice), Muckross, Portadown, Ballymoney and Cork Harlequins sharing the cup between them.

This season, then, is Conway's last chance in the competition, but even reaching the semi-finals will be a major challenge against a Railway side that truly came of age against Pegasus.

Whatever the outcome Conway will be widely acknowledged as one of Leinster hockey's great servants and most gifted players. That she only won 13 caps in 14 seasons makes her one of Irish hockey's great unharnessed talents - only her club and Leinster coaches, amongst them John Douglas, David Judge, Fintan Butler and Orla Bell, truly recognised her ability and got the very best out of her.

IRISH SENIOR CUP - Quarter-finals: Randalstown v Coleraine, Antrim Forum, 2.30; Ballymoney v Loreto, Joey Dunlop Centre, 2.30; Victorians v Hermes, Queens, 1.0; Old Alexandra v Railway Union, Milltown, 1.30.

LEINSTER LEAGUE - Division One - Tomorrow: UCD v Genesis, Belfield, 11.15; Clontarf v Corinthian, Clontarf, 2.0. Sunday: Loreto v Old Alexandra, Beaufort, 4.0. Division Two - Tomorrow: Muckross v Pembroke Wanderers II, Donnybrook, 12.30; Skerries v Loreto III, Dardistown, 2.30. Sunday: Loreto II v Glenanne, Beaufort, 2.15.

ULSTER LEAGUE - Section One: Belfast Harlequins v Pegasus, Deramore, 1.0; Knock v Omagh, Queens, 2.30.

MAY COSTLEY CUP - Semi-final: Mallow v Moyne Thurles, Garryduff, 1.30; Cooke v Weston, Paisley Park, Belfast, 2.30.