A crucial stage in the Leinster Senior Hockey League comes in the next fortnight, with Glenanne at home to Pembroke Wanderers next Sunday, followed on December 6th by the Avoca-Pembroke and Three Rock Rovers-Glenanne pairings.

The aforementioned teams, plus Corinthians, have pulled away from the rest, notably with Pembroke retaining their 100 per cent record in convincing style against Monkstown (5-1) on Saturday and Glenanne playing resolutely to beat Railway Union, 2-0. "Pembroke have got to be stopped now - otherwise, the league will be all over," the Glenanne manager, Terry Cooney, pointed out.

With the Monkstown captain, Chris Beere, moving into midfield and Brian Groves coming in at leftback, Pembroke were contained initially at Serpentine Avenue but three goals within three minutes midway through the first half made the rest of the game a formality.

Stephen Stewart went on to complete a short-corner hat-trick as the home side's greater maturity was epitomised by Andy Cooke's storming libero role as well as a finely primed second goal engineered by Paudie Carley and Devin Donnelly.

Glenanne, like all sides visiting Park Avenue, could not establish the superiority they would have liked against Railway Union. Conor O'Brien was particularly defiant in the opening half in which Stephen Butler scored just once from a dragged flick and with both goalkeepers, Barry Merriman and Ian Clarke, showing admirable agility, the only goal of the second period fell to John Goulding. It came from just the whisper of a touch, of which he is becoming adroit, though his celebration in going topless did not meet with the approval of umpire Joe Connolly. Just not hockey, you could say.

Corinthians have maintained joint second place with Glenanne but they found themselves pegged back to 3-3 by UCD at Belfield before Justin Benson hit a late winner. Apart from going under 1-0 to Trinity, this was the closest injury-hit UCD have gone to salvaging a point. Their quickbreaking tactics must surely yield some reward before long.

Three Rock Rovers and Avoca, after their rusty starts to the season, are now gathering full steam, emphasised by 6-2 and 4-0 wins over Trinity and YMCA, respectively. Avoca face Cork C of I in the Irish Senior Cup next Saturday.