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Nocturnal activities saw Tooreen hit the headlines back in 1958 and that tale is the inspiration for the blue devil on the club's crest. On Saturday, the men from east Mayo will face off with a club that hit the headlines for other nocturnal goings on last year, for a place in the All Ireland Intermediate Hurling Championship final.

The biting cold and soaking rain probably stopped Tooreen’s most famous alleged visitor from stopping by again, but it didn’t dissuade the hurling faithful of Mayo from making their way to Adrian Freeman Park on Saturday afternoon for the latest instalment of this very local rivalry.

The Mayo hurlers get their National Hurling League campaign under way this Sunday when Derry visit MacHale Park at 2pm. In their last competitive game in 2016 Mayo defeated Derry to gain promotion back to the Christy Ring Cup and send the Oak Leaf county men back down to the Nicky Rackard Cup for this season.

There are derby days in all sports all over the globe, but there are very few that are as intimate as what has become the now annual shoot-out for the Mayo senior hurling championship between Ballyhaunis and Tooreen. On Sunday afternoon in the east Mayo village of Tooreen, that rivalry will have another showdown for local pride and county honours.

After the historic high of climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand last Saturday afternoon and lifting the Nicky Rackard Cup, it's back to even more serious business tomorrow for the Mayo senior hurlers. Unlike the Christy Ring Cup, winning the competition does not guarantee you promotion to the next level of the senior hurling championship, so it's back on the road again for Mayo and a date with Derry in Ballinamore in Leitrim for the right to have a place in the draw for the Christy Ring Cup next season.

Mayo started and finished with a bang in Croke Park on Saturday night as the claimed the Nicky Rackard Cup at the first time of asking. At times it looked like it was going away from them in the early stages of the second half, but JP Coen’s men gutted it out and ran out deserved four point winners.

The Mayo senior hurlers will take on Armagh in the second round of the Nicky Rackard Cup tomorrow afternoon in Ballina when they take on Armagh, as they look to book a spot in the semi-final of the competition. Last weekend Mayo opened up their Rackard account with a 4-19 to 0-17 win over Tyrone, but it was very hard fought encounter, as manager JP Coen explained. "It was just bad play and a bit of complacency. We hadn't played a competitive game in a good while, probably the journey too didn't help — it's a lot further than you'd think for a bus journey — that coupled with a small bit of rustiness and it took us a while to get going. In fairness to Tyrone, they came at us at a good tempo and they did very well. While we might have looked to be playing badly, we had a few bad wides that could have had us in front at the break, but we found our range in the second half and took it from there."

Mayo make the trip to the Athletic Grounds in Armagh today to take on the Orchard County in what is a must win game for JP Coen’s men. After winning three out of three in their opening games in the league this year, Mayo slipped into third place in the table and out of the placings for a spot in the league final and a crack at promotion to Division 2A for next year after their disappointing loss to Wicklow last weekend in Castlebar.

A Kenny Feeney goal 20 minutes from time was the deciding moment in this entertaining encounter that saw Mayo get off to a winning start in the National Hurling League in Castlebar on Sunday. Feeney and Keith Higgins were the main men for Mayo with the two scoring a combined 1-9 between them over the 70 minutes.