Men's Hockey: The former Avoca player Mark Cullen was one of the best midfielders in Ireland in the late 1980s. He always enjoyed banter with umpires, and occasionally they were moved to send him off.
The astonishing thing about Cullen was that after a match in which he was carded, he'd be able to go up to a top umpire like Ray O'Connor and say, "You're only an oul bollix O'Connor." Ray would smile.
Cullen would then buy him a drink and the two would sit together and talk.
Cullen also possessed the most colourful disciplinary record in the team. Moreover, he would confound his team-mates by spending more time talking to umpires after matches than anyone else.
Above all of the umpires O'Connor always stood. He had a light touch when he needed it on the pitch, recognised semi-friendly expletives when he heard them and never over-reacted.
For a long time he led a parallel life as a player and an umpire. It's probably one of the reasons he's now one of the two best umpires in the world.
This week the International Hockey Federation handed the eircom employee his third successive Olympic Games as an umpire. He has now blown in 146 senior international matches, at every major final in world hockey, including the Olympics (two), World (two) and European (two) Championships, seven Champions' Trophies, including five finals, an Indoor World Championships and 10 European Club Championships, including eight finals. O'Connor is the only umpire in the game who has whistled in every major final.
At 46, he has been thinking that next year, after the Athens games, might be a good time to retire and maybe don the presidential jacket of the Leinster Umpires Association. He says it would be a privilege, but somehow O'Connor seems too able to remove himself from what he's been so successful at for well over a decade.
It is a fine honour for hockey in Ireland and an achievement that will probably never be equalled by any Irish umpire. O'Connor is a one-off.
Cullen? These days he concentrates more on his watercolours than his hockey.
SATURDAY
Leinster Senior League - Division One: Dublin University v Pembroke 3.0, Santry; Aer Lingus v Monkstown 1.30, AALSA; Glenanne v Railway Union 1.0, St Mark's; UCD v Corinthians tba; YMCA v Three Rock Rovers 2.0, Wesley. Division Two: Avoca v Naas 3.0, Rathdown; St Brendan's v Bray 2.0, DCU; Skerries v Suttonians 1.30, Sportslink; Weston v St James' Gate 1.0, King's Hospital; Clontarf v Portrane 12.15, DCU.
SUNDAY
Avoca Cup Final - Under-21: Corinthians v Dublin University 2.0, Serpentine Avenue.
Munster Senior Cup: Waterford I v Catholic Institute I, 12.30, Waterford;Catholic Institute II v Cogh 1.30, Rosbrien; Belvedere II v Harlequins V, 11.0, Belvedere.
