Bandon’s incredible recovery at Belfast Harlequins in the women’s Irish Junior Cup highlighted a busy weekend of cup shocks.

Cork Church of Ireland and Cork Harlequins were the biggest winners on a productive Irish Junior Cup weekend for Munster teams.

Cork Harlequins’ quest to win the Energiecomfort EuroHockey Club Champions Trophy in Vienna started badly with a 4-3 defeat to Italian champions HC Bra yesterday.

Anna O’Flanagan’s stylish hat-trick left Pegasus reeling as UCD made a serious statement of intent with a 5-2 Irish Senior Cup quarter-final victory at Belfield.

Ireland’s Champions Challenge I campaign is up and running but not without some controversy as Belfield witnessed plenty of drama yesterday.

Cork Harlequins rolled back the years to record a fairytale men’s Irish Senior Cup victory at Belfield yesterday.

It’s been a fallow few seasons for Cork Harlequins in national competitions, but they continued to roll back the years in stunning style on Saturday to see off Banbridge 2-1 and progress to the Irish Senior Cup semi-finals.

Three Rock Rovers’ Turkish travails ended on a high yesterday after they earned promotion for Ireland back to European indoor hockey’s third tier.

CORK CHURCH of Ireland were left to rue a couple of early defensive howlers as their title ambitions were taken out of their hands by Cork Harlequins on Saturday.

CLIODHNA SARGENT could be set to get an early Christmas present this weekend — her 100th Irish senior cap.

CORK HARLEQUINS raided the Mardyke twice in 24 hours to end the cup dreams of UCC’s men and women on a memorable weekend for the Farmer’s Cross club.

CORK C of I and Harlequins both picked up significant victories in their respective bids to become the first Munster sides to reach the men’s Irish Hockey League play-offs last Saturday on home soil.

THREE ROCK ROVERS sprung a South African surprise on Cork Church of Ireland on Saturday, as Jody Hosking’s double helped them to a noteworthy 2-1 Irish Junior Cup round one win at Garryduff.

MUNSTER’S hockey community has rallied around the University College Cork (UCC) club after the students’ pitch was left unplayable for “the foreseeable future” following the catastrophic floods that hit Cork last week.

MISMATCHES were the order of the opening day of the hockey season in Munster, with the province’s heavy hitters all recording big wins on Saturday.

HOPE springs eternal for some of the lesser lights in Munster hockey as the domestic season gets underway this weekend.

BANDON will be glad to see the back of Cork Harlequins after the Farmers’ Cross outfit handed them final heartbreak for the second time this season at Garryduff yesterday.

JASON LYNCH faces the novel prospect of lining out against former colleagues on his old stomping ground for the second time in a week, as he prepares to don the colours of Ulster at the senior hockey interprovincials at Garryduff in Cork this weekend.

IRELAND earned the bronze medal and some consolation for their failure to qualify for the Beijing Olympics with a 2-1 win over Canada at the University of Victoria yesterday.

HOW the mighty have fallen.

AFTER a week in which they created a huge number of chances, though failing to take most of them, Cork Harlequins finally hit top gear in Prague yesterday when they put on their best scoring display of the week to secure promotion for Ireland in the European Clubs Championships.

TYPICAL Irish Senior Cup hockey: heartbreak on one hand, elation on the other. This time the heartbreak – for the second consecutive year – belonged to Cork Church of Ireland, while the elation fell upon Cork Harlequins.

ANDY CHAMBERS wasn’t at all surprised when the draw for the fourth round of the Irish Senior Cup threw up yet another clash between Cork sides Church of Ireland and Harlequins for the third time in the last five years.

AFTER a first half which promised so much, Cork Church of Ireland were overwhelmed 5-1 by Cork Harlequins in the Munster Senior League at Harlequins Park on Saturday.

Cork Harlequins 2 Lisnagarvey 1

CORK HARLEQUINS secured an Irish Senior Men’s Cup semi-final away to Kilkeel next weekend as two beautifully-executed Richard Gash goals gave them a deserved victory over old rivals Cork Church of Ireland at Farmers Cross on Saturday.

CORK Harlequins’ European odyssey came to a controversial end yesterday when they lost to Belgian side Royal Dragons in their play-off game in Vienna.

HARLEQUINS’ captain, Jason Black emphasised one of the most enduring facts of hockey life when he referred to the importance of Quins’ penalty corner routine ahead of their Irish Senior Cup final at Belfield on Sunday.

CORK HARLEQUINS survived the vigorous challenge of a committed NICS, the stresses of a knock-out semi-final and the tension of a penalty shoot-out to qualify for their second consecutive Royal Liver Irish Senior Cup final at Stormont on Saturday.

CORK HARLEQUINS’ campaign in the European Club Hockey Championships in Brussels ended in disappointment yesterday when they went down 2-0 to the host club, Leopold, in their final match.

LISNAGARVEY, favourites to win the Irish Senior Hockey Cup in Belfield today (2.30 pm), were yesterday described by Harlequins’ coach, Stephen Jackson, as the “aristocrats of Irish hockey”.

MUNSTER’S hopes of retaining the men’s senior hockey Interprovincial Championship at Harlequins’ Park were dented by a training injury that yesterday ruled former international Alistair Dunne out of their squad.

IRISH Senior Cup specialists, Lisnagarvey, are viewed as the biggest obstacle to the accomplishment of a little history today when two Cork teams attempt to negotiate the semi-finals and set-up hockey’s first ever all-Cork men’s cup final.