This is the blue riband of interclub golf in the province, with no fewer than 133 clubs having made a tilt at the title this year and it has now boiled down to just two. Royal Dublin meet Old Conna with the first leg of the final scheduled for the Dollymount links this weekend.

Both clubs are on fire with enthusiasm, and the Old Conna boys are really determined that this should be their first win since 1992, when team manager Declan Kerrigan played a big part in the campaign. They have been given inspired leadership throughout the current campaign by another 1992 veteran in the person of one handicapper Phillip Brennan .

Brennan, as his handicap implies, is a hot number. But then that can be garnered from the fact that he won the captain's prize at the club recently. Onehandicappers are not supposed to do that sort of thing against a horde of mid- and high- handicappers but he beat them all into submission and is now their knight in shining armour.

By way of contrast, youth is the key-note at Royal Dublin where the Coghlan brothers have formed a winning partnership throughout the season. Seventeen-yearold Darragh plays to four-handicap while 20-year-old Conor operates off 10, and they show all the flair and sense of occasion displayed by their late grandfather Fergus and grand-uncle Kieran, who teamed up for a vital point in Royal Dublin's win in 1946. They are hoping that family history will repeat itself after 60 years.

Royal Dublin hopes are boosted further by virtue of the fact that John Harrington, winner of the Lord Mayor's Cup in 2004 and 2005, is playing superbly at the moment. The odds are on Royal Dublin to apply plenty of heat on their rivals and the fact that they lost in the semi-finals last year to eventual winners Newlands has helped team manager Brendan O'Malley to inspire the troops with a sense of mission.

The routes to the final for the teams reads: Royal Dublin beat St Anne's, Beech Park, Moate, Athy, Cill Dara and old rivals Portmarnock; Old Conna beat Delgany, Charlesland, Greystones, Killeen, Woodbrook and Kilkea Castle.