Ireland’s women have been dealt a reasonably favourable pool in the women’s World Cup next July with their date with India looking to be the crucial one if they are to make the knock-out phases.

Fermoy have given themselves a fighting chance of avoiding relegation after claiming their first ever win in Munster hockey’s top tier.

Margins have been fine in this year’s Munster Senior Schoolgirls Cup, and it took sudden-death penalty strokes to crown Bandon Grammar as the 2012 champions in yesterday’s dramatic decider in Rosbrien.

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

BANDON’S gut-wrenching loss to Three Rock Ladies was the only bit of bad news on a productive day for Munster women’s hockey in Irish competitions.