This years Cork County Senior Hurling Championship is the most open in years with all remaining 9 teams entitled to feel they have a chance of brining home the Sean Og Cup.

Teams like Imokilly, Avondhu and Sarsfields have all improved significantly from last year, add in Blackrock (going for 3 in row), Newtown (very impresive in the last round and the unknown quantity of UCC and you have the makings of a very interesting 2003 championship.

Midleton were the first to qualify when flooring Glen Rovers two weeks ago. Divisional side Imokilly joined them when comfortably accounting for Na Piarsaigh last week.

And Cloyne advanced at the expense of St Finbarr’s last weekend when Erins Own and Sarsfields shared the honours, and must battle it out again for the right to complete the quarter-final line up.

Blackrock remain the favourites to go all the way for the third year on the trot, and perhaps last season’s runners-up Newtownshandrum would be regarded as the main pretenders to the throne at the moment.

But the Rockies didn’t exactly look invincible against Delanys last time out, and they won’t need to be told that they will have to be on their guard when they take on Midleton in the quarter-final.

It would obviously be a major upset if Blackrock were to falter, as Midleton’s display when dispatching the Glen was hardly out of the top drawer, and it can be safely said that there was no mad rush to the bookies to back the Magpies to win the county on the strength of it.

At the same time, Midleton can be relied upon to give it their best shot against the Rockies, and it will be recalled that they pulled off a shock victory when the teams clashed in the 2000 championship.

That was Blackrock’s only defeat in the last four campaigns, but one suspects the memory of it is sufficiently vivid to ensure that the champions will be taking nothing for granted in the quarter-final, making it all the more difficult for Midleton to emerge from the fray with their hopes of a first county title since 1991 intact.

It’s a fair bet, however, that Newtownshandrum will have their hands full in their quarter-final test with an Imokilly side that had a very balanced look about it during the victory over Na Piarsaigh.

And Cloyne, boosted by their win over a fancied Barrs combination, will be no push-over for Avondhu, especially since the men from the North Cork division are bound to be handicapped to a certain extent by the fact that they haven’t been seriously tested in their two outings to date against St Catherine’s and Seandun.

By all accounts, Sars allowed Erins Own off the hook last Saturday evening at Páirc Uí Chaoimh where the Glounthaune side, seven points adrift early in the second half, were ultimately rescued by ice-cool Kieran Murphy, who slotted over an equalising point from a long-range free at the death.

But, irrespective of how the replay pans out, the extra game will have done the eventual winners no harm at all when they square up to UCC in the quarter-final.