Ireland were left thankful for what one wag termed “The 50 Saves of Gray” as they claimed a brilliant bronze at the Champions Challenge I tournament in Dublin yesterday.

The club hockey season is a distant memory for the majority of the country’s players, but those sides hoping to find a backdoor route to next year’s Irish Hockey League must tog off one last time this weekend before the summer break.

Ireland's women survived an early fright to get their Athlon FIH Road to London campaign underway with a 5-1 win over France in Beerschot, Belgium today.

LOUISA HEALY and Megan Frazer will make their first international appearances in over 18 months later this month following their inclusion in Gene Muller’s panel for Ireland’s tour to South Africa.

OPPORTUNITY knocks for two of UCD’s leading lights as Ireland senior women’s coach Gene Muller has opted to shake things up for his side’s trip to Argentina next month.

CORK’S Julia O’Halloran is the big absentee from Gene Muller’s latest Irish centralised training panel announced yesterday.

IRELAND showed more of their attacking hand but were left undone by world number one Argentina’s overall class as Carla Rebecchi inspired a 4-1 victory at Belfield last night.

RÓISÍN UPTON’S whirlwind 12 months came to a fitting end at the Burlington Hotel on Saturday night, as she was named U18 Female Player of the Year at the sixth annual ESB Electric Ireland Irish Hockey Awards.

THE fight to lay claim to some of the oldest silverware in world hockey begins this weekend, as the men’s and women’s Irish Senior Cup gets underway.

EACH of Munster’s three representatives in the women’s Irish Hockey League will be seeking capital gains this weekend as all face tricky trips to Dublin for the second round of the competition – where they will renew acquaintances with former team-mates.

THE opening weekend of this season’s women’s ESB Irish Hockey League will have a distinctly local flavour to it on Leeside, where perennial rivals Cork Harlequins and Cork Church of Ireland will lock horns in Pool A tomorrow (Harlequin Park, 2pm).

IRISH hockey’s unsung heroes are set to take centre stage at the ESB Irish Hockey Awards next month.

RAILWAY UNION will be hoping to translate their league form onto the national stage when they visit Cork to cross swords with UCC in an intriguing double-header at the Mardyke tomorrow (12pm).

THERE was no glory for defending champions the Irish U-18 Boys in yesterday’s climax to the European Nations Hockey Cup in Barcelona.