With four photographers out of action this weekend the pressure was onto pick up as many games as possible myself and a double header of Schools Superleague Hockey and Schools Cup Rugby at my old school, Larne Grammar, was the obvious choice.

The last time I was involved with hockey at my old school was when the 1st XI played the 1st XV in an end of term hockey match well over 40 years ago and things have certainly changed over the decades, the most obvious being the shared all weather hockey pitch the hockey teams now have access to.

I arrived at the hockey pitch about 9:10 as the teams were warming up for a 9:20 pass back and as I studied the teams I was pleased to see that I’d covered one of the Larne players, Isla Allen, last week when she was playing for Ulster U16. The Larne youngster had a strong game then and she was a major factor in Larne’s win on Saturday morning.