New kids St Mark’s face baptism of fire against the reigning champions

The League gets under way on Monday night and the opening round of matches are:

SECTION A: Monday, Hillsborough Social v Killaney; Tuesday, St Mark’s v Ballinderry, Priesthill v Eglantine; Wednesday, Annahilt Parish v Soldierstown. Bye, St Paul’s.

SECTION B: Monday, Broomhedge v Lambeg Parish; Tuesday, Pond Park v St Joseph’s; Thursday, Hilden v Rock, Sloan Street v Seymour Hill. Bye, Derriaghy.

SETION C: Monday, Royal British Legion v St Colman’s Lambeg; Thursday, Derryvolgie v St Clare’s, Aghagallon v St Colman’s Dunmurry, Suffolk v Lisburn Masonic. Bye, St Columba’s.

What’s in store for new season?

SECTION A

ANNAHILT PARISH: relegated the previous season but bounced back up. Will be happy to stay in Section A.

BALLINDERRY: their amazing record is bound to end some time. The question is; will it be this season? Answers please on a postcard.

EGLANTINE: narrowly avoided relegation last season and will be content to stay up again this season.

HILLSBOROUGH SOCIAL: if Ballinderry fail this time, Social will be waiting in the wings.

KILLANEY: can do better than last season, but will again be hoping to finish in top five at least.

PRIESTHILL: had a great start last season and still managed to finish fourth. Can they do a little better this time?

ST MARK’S: surprised everyone by gaining promotion, but the big question is: can they survive this time?

ST PAUL’S: have remained just outside relegation fight recently and will be happy to repeat this trend in the new campaign.

SOLDIERSTOWN: are capable of getting near the top, but it is questionable if they can go further this time.

SECTION B

BROOMHEDGE: back up again in Section B and will be looking for a mid-table finish.

DERRIAGHY: relegated last term but will hope they can manage to bounce straight back up. They are good enough to do that.

HILDEN: struggled last season before going down, but surely they will be in the mix as promotion candidates.

LAMBEG PARISH: promoted last season and will hope to stay up, but have struggled for numbers recently.

POND PARK: will probably finish somewhere about m-d-table but with strong competition that is probably the best they can hope for.

ROCK: had a good season last time and will hope to keep the momentum going during the new campaign.

ST JOSEPH’S: disappointing time last season, but in this section things can change dramatically and they will hope to do better.

SEYMOUR HILL: normally promise a lot before disappointing. Can they at last become consistent during the new season.

SLOAN STREET: had a disturbing time last season in more ways than one, but will hope to re-group for the new campaign.

SECTION C

AGHAGALLON: rejegated last season but surely good enough to go back up. They will plan to make a big effort.

BRITISH LEGION: never quite seem to reach their capabilities, but will remain hopeful they can perform well this time.

DERRYVOLGIE: finished bottom last year and to be honest they are unlikely to do any better this time.

LISBURN MASONIC: another team that can do better, though they have lost several players in recent seasons.

ST CLARE’S: can surely improve on last season’s form, but could again miss out on promotion.

ST COLMAN’S DUNMURRY: another team that could do better, but must be consistent to get into the top group.

ST COLMAN’S LAMBEG: relegated last season, the hope would be to bounce straight back but this may be more difficult than expected.

ST COLUMBA’S: even though finishing one from the bottom last season, they showed a lot of improvement and will hope to continue the upwards trend.

SUFFOLK: they blew it last year in the promotion fight, but will hope to make amends this year.