IT is more than a little ironic that Cork Harlequins ace striker Richard Gash and Cork Church of Ireland’s Mark Ruddle are best friends.

NIGEL HENDERSON has returned to the Irish senior men’s team to help solve national coach Dave Passmore’s goalkeeper crisis.

THE fact that Cork Harlequins have never won the men’s Irish senior cup will be in sharp focus this weekend as the club makes the long trip north to Kilkeel to face the unheralded but obviously well-organised local outfit in this year’s semi-final.

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.

Sean Nicholson and David Hobbs know each other from their schooldays and have played together for Ashton, Munster and Ireland. Today they put their friendship aside as their clubs, Harlequins and Church of Ireland, face-off in the Irish Senior Cup quarter-final. Declan Colley reports.

HARLEQUINS have gone the extra yard in their efforts to win the Irish Senior Cup for the first time this season by recruiting David Passmore, a member of the British Association’s coaching staff.

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.

HEAVYWEIGHTS on the bill again in Cork, but a week after the Multi-Nations boxing event, the knockout blow was delivered by an Irish hockey international.

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”.

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.