I love this time of year. Opening weekends for British Isles Rugby with both the Celtic League and the Guinness Premiership kicking off and just to put the icing on the cake, the Belfast Giants started their Elite League campaign in Ice Hockey against the Cardiff Devils.

I went to the Giants game on Saturday. Slightly disappointing start to the season with the Ref missing his flight and causing an hour delay to the game. And then there are the new team shirts, they look fine, but the font used for the players' names is illegible. So with twelve new players on the team it made it a little difficult to recognise who was who.

Still it was a good performance once they finally got started, with the team looking skilful and quick, if lacking in size.. Well organised in defence, except for a minute's lapse of concentration when they let in two goals and a bit of panic when Cardiff's big men put themselves about a bit.

A well-deserved 5-3 victory with new guys Andrew Martin and Bobby Robins sharing the goals between them. Not a bad start for Martin with a hat-trick in his debut for the team.

Another victory on Sunday against Edinburgh made this a great start to the season. Roll on the rest of the season.