The west Cork outfit were simply more clinical than their Limerick opponents, with the majority of their goals coming from play, and their superior fitness was also a telling factor.

They will be particularly pleased that their goals were spread throughout the team, with Kate Murphy, Alison Kingston, Louise O’Flynn, Jane O’Higgins, Kate O’Sullivan and Ireland U18 starlet Olivia Roycroft doing the damage.

Cork C of I's Sinead Connery (left) and Lauragh O'Neill (right) close down Ashton's Aine Cummins (centre). Picture: Eoin Tyrrell

However, the heavy margin of defeat will be a source of concern for Institute, who are traditionally one of the strongest sides in the division outside the “big two” of Quins and C of I, running UCC close for third place last term.

They will be hoping for better luck next week when they host Ashton, who went down 5-0 to Cork Church of Ireland at Garryduff this afternoon.

Ashton, who finished bottom of Division One last season but earned a relegation reprieve thanks to the rule preventing second teams – in this case, last year’s Division Two winners Catholic Institute B – had no answer to C of I’s superior movement, as the hosts hit the goal trail in an emphatic fashion.

C of I coach Phil Oakley won’t have been pleased with the hatful of chances his side spurned, but theere were plenty of positives too, notably the performances of rookies Hollie Sweetnam and Lauragh O’Neill.

O’Neill in particular could turn out to be a precocious attacking talent – Ashton keeper Vanessa Sargent thwarted all of her drag-flicks today, but the teenager has plenty of time to harness the power needed to go with the sharp accuracy she already possesses.

She came desperately close to hitting one of the goals of the season inside the first minute, crashing a volley volleying against the crossbar from the top of the circle, but C of I didn’t have to wait long to hit the front.

From their first short corner in the 10th minute – they managed 11 in total – Mel Ryan’s slap was deflected home by captain Sandra Hackett.

Ashton almost plundered an equaliser four minutes later, when Orla McCarthy got a block on Emma Harrington’s deflection after Eimear Connery had uncharacteristically given the ball away to Aine Cummins deep in the C of I half.

Indeed, Harrington was by far Ashton’s most potent attacking threat, but her opportunities were few and far between as her side were continually thwarted by C of I’s press, and the Garryduff outfit extended their lead on 26 minutes via a Claire Hickey tap-in after good work down the left from Grace Young and Amy Roberts.

Cork C of I's Sarah Delaney gets the better of Ashton's Karen Stokes. Picture: Eoin Tyrrell

With talented Australian Michaela Mihailou pulling the strings, C of I put the result beyond doubt with two quickfire strikes before half-time.

First, Ryan beat Sargent with a short corner strike on 31 minutes, before Young fired home the pick of the bunch three minutes later after she and Deirdre Casey had shredded the Ashton defence.

Harrington should have pulled once back for Ashton on the resumption when she engineered a one-on-one with McCarthy, but she made a mess of her reverse effort, and the game petered out thereafter as both sides tired under a surprisingly warm September sun.

Mihailou saw yellow in the 53rd minute for a deliberate breakdown foul on Harrington, but Ashton made no headway from the resultant short corner, and Roberts put the finishing touch on C of I’s victory seven minutes from time with a tap-in after Hackett’s long ball from the right somehow evaded the Ashton defence.

In the men’s Division One, Paul Murray struck twice on his debut for Cork Harlequins A as they humbled Quins B 9-0.

The former Belvedere man was denied a hat-trick after he saw another goal chalked off by the umpires, but David Egner stole his thunder anyway by striking three times himself.

Ashton's Aine Cummins can't stop Cork C of I's Deirdre Casey getting the ball away. Picture: Eoin Tyrrell

Irish international Sean Nicholson marked his return to the Quins side after a year abroad with a 38th minute strike, while Darren Farrell and Dan Hobbs also got their names on the scoresheet in the final ten minutes, the latter’s strike his side’s only goal from a penalty corner.

Elsewhere, C of I ousted Ashton 2-0 in the ladies’ Division Four, while Fermoy were held 1-1 by Mallow. In Division Five, Ashton went down 4-0 to C of I, while Bruff opened their account in Division Six with a comprehensive 6-0 defeat of Ashton, and Cobh played out a 0-0 stalemate against Belvedere.

But the result of the weekend belonged to Limerick in Division Five, as they stormed Farmers Cross in spectacular fashion, defeating hosts Cork Harlequins 10-1, with Jenni Lyttle grabbing seven of their strikes.

Ladies Div 1

Cork C of I 5 (S Hackett, C Hickey, M Ryan, G Young, A Roberts) Ashton 0

Bandon 6 (K Murphy, A Kingston, O Roycroft, L O’Flynn, J O’Higgins, K O’Sullivan) Catholic Institute 0

Mens Div 1

Cork Harlequins A 9 (D Egner 3, P Murray 2, L d’Alton, S Nicholson, D Farrell, D Hobbs) Cork Harlequins B 0

Ladies Div 4

Cork C of I 2 (A O’Connell, E Coyne) Ashton 0

Fermoy 1 Mallow 1

Ladies Div 5

Ashton  0 Cork C of I 4 (J Preston, K Donovan, W Heath)

Cork Harlequins 1 (K O’Mara) Limerick 10 (J Lyttle 7, S O’Brien, T Whisker, S Cremin)

Ladies Div 6

Bruff 6 Ashton 0

Cobh 0 Belvedere  0

The students’ proposal to move up from Division Two, first discussed last week, was unanimously approved, and solves a fixture headache in the process. Belvedere’s decision to voluntarily drop a division had left the top tier with just seven teams, creating an obvious problem with one team left without a fixture every week.

UCC's men will have their work cut out to prove they can handle life in Division One. Picture: Dan McClanahan

While the inclusion of College has alleviated that problem, doubts remain over whether they can be competitive in Division One given the yawning gap that already exists between the haves and have-nots in the league. College, who are coached by IHA chairman John Dennis, missed out on promotion at the tail end of last season, losing in a playoff against Bandon B 4-2.

While their female counterparts have benefitted in recent years from the migration of C of I and Quins players to the club, the men have soldiered on while dozens of interprovincial-standard players and the odd Irish international have passed through the college without ever representing the skull and crossbones.

Nonetheless, the return to Division One presents an interesting challenge to Dennis and his players, who will be out to prove they are worth their place at Munster hockey’s top table.

Meanwhile, UCC women’s coach Denis Pritchard has professed himself satisfied with his side’s pre-season trip to England last weekend.

College shipped eight goals in two defeats to Loughborough, going down 5-0 and 3-0, but Pritchard said he was happier to see his side play creatively rather than engaging in damage limitation.

However, the students decided not to fulfill their third fixture against Leicester after a litany of injuries to the likes of Audrey O’Flynn, Orla Crowley and Eibhlin O’Donoghue left them severely short of bodies.

The trip was intended to give College worthwhile pitch-time ahead of the new season, which for them kicks off two weeks later than everyone else when Catholic Institute visit the Mardyke on October 4.

College are notoriously slow starters – last year they lost their first three games, which ultimately cost them an automatic Irish Hockey League slot and dashed any hopes of an Irish Senior Cup run. But if they can hit the ground running this year, they will pose a threat to everyone, with few teams able to boast a midfield containing three Irish internationals.

The students have been paired with Bandon and Belvedere in the new Ladies Examiner Cup competition, which has been split into two pools. Ashton, UL and Catholic Institute will battle it out in the other group, with all fixtures for this competition having been moved from IHL Saturdays at the branch’s request, as have the men’s Charity Cup games.

Elsewhere, Bandon and Quins both appear to have lost a ladies team this season, having withdrawn from Divisions Five and Six respectively. Clonmel have been moved up from Division Six to take the west Cork side’s place.

Aside from UCC and Belvedere’s straight swap between Divisions One and Two, the only other change in the men’s leagues sees Catholic Institute B drop to Division Three. In both the women’s and men’s leagues, Division Three will be split after Christmas, with the lower-ranking teams forming Division Four.

Southern Fried doesn’t have all the answers to such questions, but it’s as good a time as any to take the pulse of men’s hockey in the province, which has been struggling for some time with a widening gulf between the haves and have-nots.

When things go wrong in any community, the blame game inevitably begins, and the easiest targets are the powers that be. Anyone can look at a seven-team top tier comprised of just four clubs, shake their head and draw the straightforward conclusion that the Munster Branch haven’t got a clue what they’re doing – but it’s never quite as simple as that.

Consider this – a similar imbalance exists in a different sport in a different country, in a league that has millions at their disposal to solve the problem. Yet, in the Scottish Premier League, they still haven’t figured out how to end the Glasgow-led dominance of Rangers and Celtic. Sound familiar?

This is not to suggest the branch are entirely blameless – fixing games for 11.30 on Sunday mornings is hardly conducive to raising hockey’s profile, though that’s one of a number of issues for another day – but John Rose has a point when he says some of the onus must come upon the clubs to develop their own players.

The potential crossover appeal of hockey in hurling strongholds is evidenced by Irish international women's captain Eimear Cregan, who also played Ashbourne Cup camogie for UL. Picture: Adrian Boehm

To this end, there has been much talk over the last couple of days of clubs needing to build from the bottom up. Unfortunately, this realisation has come after too many clubs have seen the skyscrapers they envisaged come tumbling down, because they neglected the foundations of the structure in the first place.

Volunteerism, or more pointedly, its decline, is a thorny issue across all sports – just ask the GAA. But in a minor sport like hockey, it is vital to its survival. And in this regard, some clubs have inadvertently contributed to the downfall of volunteerism.

Not so long ago, the third and fourth teams of each club were served by a motley crew of former first-teamers too old to handle the top level, plus other 30- and 40-somethings who were never good enough to make the firsts anyway, but played hockey for the love of it.

These teams were immune to the win-at-all costs mentality of top-level sport, and their members talked a better game over a pint than they ever could dream of displaying on the pitch.

But they were also the lifeblood of their clubs, making excellent committee members, umpiring and coaching at underage levels and organising fundraisers.

However, somewhere down the line, clubs decided that winning Division Three or Four was suddenly a top priority. Promising 13-year-olds were parachuted into the thirds’ first XI, as participation began to come second to winning.

Unable to keep up with the increased pace and standards, the game stopped becoming fun for the old guard, and many superb servants were lost to clubs as a result – as, inevitably, were the third and fourth teams themselves.

It is therefore little wonder that so many clubs find themselves struggling to fill two teams these days, let alone have people willing to put out the cones on a Saturday morning.

Now we find ourselves in a situation where all and sundry are crying out for more schools and youth programmes, without enough volunteers around to run them.

Nonetheless, as one contributor to this website eloquently pointed out, time, investment and novel ideas are all still needed to raise the game’s profile at schools level.

Such initiatives face fierce competition from rugby in particular, which has blossomed outside its traditional strongholds largely thanks to Munster’s success.

C of I's David Hobbs teaches and coaches at Ashton, his alma mater, while a number of other Irish internationals partake in guest coaching roles at schools where hockey is in its infancy. Picture: Adrian Boehm

But, perversely, the rugby blueprint is something hockey can learn from. The sport has notably snowballed at grassroots level in Kerry, where Gaelic football is king – just look at the number of 06 area codes in the list of associate schools at MunsterSchoolsRugby.com.

The similarity between the sports has undoubtedly helped the transition from the round ball to the oval one. Certainly, it’s a bigger jump from sliothar to stick; but rugby has proven that it can succeed outside its traditional Protestant bastions.

However, as IHA western development officer Phil Oakley pointed out, there is a notable caveat in the fact that Irish hockey suffers from a lack of international profile to help boost participation at grassroots level.

Nonetheless, Belvedere, who saw their traditional supply lines from Mayfield and Douglas community schools drip dry, are attempting grow the sport in Colaiste Choilm and Ballincollig Community School. Similar initiatives, which provide tournaments for up-and-coming schools, are also underway in Leinster, and are worth keeping an eye on.

However, targeting primary schools – and introducing children to hockey before their head has been turned by other sports – may be a better long-term plan for both clubs and branch.

But first and foremost, hockey must find the bodies to carry out such tasks. Solid foundations, and all that. Reinvigorating the social hockey scene would be a good start.

What do you think? What can be done to help raise participation levels and the profile of men’s hockey in Munster? All comments and suggestions welcome!

However, Catholic Institute have opted not to follow suit after a  consensus was reached at a club  committee meeting tonight that they remain in Division One of the  Munster Senior Men’s League.

The Limerick outfit’s decision to stay put means the nightmare scenario of seeing the league contested between the first and second teams of Bandon, Cork Harlequins and Cork Church of Ireland has been avoided.

However, Ballincollig-based Belvedere’s absence from Division One will cause fixture headaches, with teams now facing free weekends and loss of revenue.

Munster Branch president John Rose told Southern Fried that the branch had granted Belvedere’s request to drop a division at a meeting on Monday night.

“We met with Belvedere last night, they asked us if their men’s team could drop a division as they try to consolidate their men’s section, and in the interests of hockey we said yes,” he explained. “Hopefully, they’ll take this step back to eventually take two or three steps forward.”

Both Belvedere and Limerick outfit Institute have shipped heavy defeats to the big guns of Quins and C of I in recent years in a severely unbalanced league. It was widely acknowledged that nobody benefited from these games, with the smaller outfits demoralised by occasional double-digit hammerings, while the big two’s national ambitions suffered with a lack of competitive hockey on their doorstep.

Belvedere won't have to endure double-digit hammerings from the likes of Cork Harlequins when they play in Division Two this season. Picture: Des Barry/Irish Examiner

Belvedere captain Paul Hayes said he believed men’s hockey at the club may have died a death had they stayed in Division One.

“It has probably been coming over the last couple of years – we’ve had dwindling resources on the player side, and in the last two years we’ve had a few people move away to Dublin and London,” he explained.

“It hasn’t been great. We were quite lucky over the past couple of years, scraping results in the last two or three games of the season to keep us up.

“We didnt think we had enough quality players to compete in the Division One, so we all took the decision to rally around and move down to the second division.

“It is very disappointing, but we had to take stock. If we had stuck it out and been beaten 12-0 or 14-0 every week, even by the second teams, I think men’s hockey in Belvedere would probably have ceased.”

Initially located in Tower, Belvedere was traditionally served by the Mayfield and Douglas community schools, both of which have long since ceased playing hockey.

The need for an astro-turf pitch prompted a move to Ballincollig, where they are attempting to foster hockey in Ballincollig Community School to secure the club’s future.

However, IHA western development officer Phil Oakley admitted it has been a slow process in an area where rugby is the current sport du jour.

“We’re trying our level best to get boys playing in the two schools, which is what Belvedere really needs,” he explained.

“The club’s biggest problem is that it used to be fed from the UCC men’s team, and that has just dried up; a lot of players don’t stay in Cork anymore.”

“It was a choice of dropping down a division or losing the club completely, and I think the branch has made the right decision. Now we need to focus on getting young guys playing.”

Oakley pointed to the example of Limerick HC, whose senior side entered at Division One level but folded within a couple of years.

He said the club has rebuilt from the bottom up with the help of dedicated volunteers, and comfortably won Division Three last year.

He added that to compete with other sports, hockey would benefit from the exposure of Ireland qualifying for a major championship.

“Look at the cricketers, they beat Pakistan and qualified for the Super Eights. After that, I saw kids out playing cricket with a hurley and three sticks in the ground. We were unlucky with the Olympic qualification this time around, but hopefully we can get to 2012 in London and the 2010 World Cup.”

Lack of player depth is an issue for all clubs in Munster bar the ‘big two’ and Bandon, who benefit from the hockey nurseries at Ashton and Bandon Grammar, and have established youth programmes.

Belvedere and Institute are now both likely to drop their second teams down a division, in order to blood young players in a less competitive arena.

According to John Rose, Belvedere’s plight highlights similar imbalances in schoolboy hockey. He believes the dominance of Bandon Grammar and Ashton – who joined the Leinster Senior Schools League in recent years in search of more competitive hockey – has had a knock-on effect at senior club level.

“There are probably several contributing factors [to clubs dropping divisions], but one of the main ones is that over the past five to seven years the schools development hasn’t been great,” he said.

“The advent of two Munster schools going to play in Leinster certainly didn’t help. It became a very unhealthy situation, insofar as the interest totaly diminished when Ashton and Bandon Grammar left.

“The onus is now on clubs to produce their own players [as a result], and the coaching at youth level by the clubs themselves is becoming more and more important.”

Indeed, a glance at the the current men’s Irish squad shows that all of the Munster representatives are products of both schools. David Hobbs, Mark Black, John Jermyn and Karl Burns are Ashton alumni, while twins Conor and David Harte and Jason Lynch won an All-Ireland Schools title with Bandon Grammar in 2004. It’s the same story with the last Munster interpro squad, selected minus internationals.

Even below elite level, the majority of decent schools players are members of Quins, Bandon or C of I, with a few playing for top clubs elsewhere when they move to university – Lynch is plying his trade with Lisnagarvey while at Queen’s University, Bandon graduate Patrick Shanahan has joined Three Rock Rovers and the Hartes are at Pembroke.

It leaves the likes of Belvedere scrapping around for players who can’t get into the first or second sides at Quins, Bandon and C of I. Meanwhile, Limerick’s lack of competitive schoolboys hockey means Institute must grow their own, only to see the best inevitably leave for greener pastures in Cork and Dublin.

A round-robin tournament will be staged between Ashton, Bandon, Belvedere, Catholic Institute, UL and UCC on weekends that Cork Church of Ireland and Cork Harlequins are in action in the inaugural Irish Hockey League.

The competition has been introduced to ensure the five clubs aren’t left with no games while Quins and C of I are in action in the IHL on October 18, November 29, January 31, March 7 and April 4.

It is understood the Cork Examiner Trophy, which was awarded to the winner of a season-opening one-day tournament up until the late 1990s, will be dusted off and revived for the new competition.

Sarah Gray (left) and Julia O'Halloran, seen here in the colours of Catholic Institute and Cork Harlequins respectively, are now on the same side at UCC, who will be among five clubs looking to win the new women's round-robin trophy. Picture: Richard Mills/Evening Echo

Women’s Round-Robin Tournament (name TBC)

October 18: Ashton vs Bandon; Belvedere vs Catholic Institute; UL vs UCC.

November 29: Bandon vs Belvedere; Catholic Institute vs UL; UCC vs Ashton.

January 31: Ashton vs UL; Bandon vs Catholic Institute; Belvedere vs UCC.

March 7: Ashton vs Belvedere; UL vs Bandon; UCC vs Catholic Institute.

April 4: Belvedere vs UL; Bandon vs UCC; Catholic Institute vs Ashton.