We caught up with our friends at Banbridge Academy as they took on the challenge of Ballyclare High School in the Ulster Hockey Senior Cup at Havelock Park late on Thursday afternoon.

The thoughts on this one were that it would be a close game and that’s exactly how it turned out as defences dominated in the first half leaving the game scoreless as the teams changed ends.

The third quarter started in much the same vein but as it developed there was a sense that the attacks from Banbridge were becoming more frequent. The home side had welcomed back their enforcer Abbi Harrison from the Women’s U19 T20 Cricket World Cup the day before and the all round athlete started to appear in my viewfinder more . . .