MEN'S HOCKEY:THE LEINSTER scene continues to play out very tightly at the top of the table with a draw for Pembroke and wins for pace-setters YMCA, Monkstown and Glenanne making sure that the top four teams are separated by just two points at about one third of the way through the season.

Pembroke tonked struggling Three Rock Rovers by six last week at Grange Road but fell back to earth at the weekend in Ballsbridge. The fall was made all the more harder as the home side had the game in the bag after going 3-0 up at Serpentine Avenue.

But as so often happens and what is frequently illustrated in the higher-scoring modern game, sometimes three goals just isn’t enough.

Two from Kirk Shimmings and a penalty from Alan Sothern seemed plenty enough for Pembroke before Railway Union did the most un-neighbourly thing and fired in three during the second half.

Rob Abbot started it and Peter English dragging two corners for a handy draw.

YMCA hit three against Clontarf for 3-1 with Glenanne sinking the UCD students by the same score.

Monkstown sneaked past Corinthians 2-1 while Rovers got back on the horse so to speak with Gary Ringwood hitting two goals in their 3-2 win over bottom placed Clontarf.