Newmarket had their first outing in this years junior hurling league when they travelled to Tullylease on Sunday, where the home side emerged victorious by 3-13 to 2-9 in greasy, wet conditions.

Tullylease were much sharper at the outset and had four points on the board after eleven minutes. Newmarket settled and John Lane got them on the scoreboard from a free. Denys O’Brien soloed in on goal before pointing and some fine teamwork was rewarded with Barry O’Leary striking from long range which left the score 0-4 to 0-3 after twenty minutes. Tullylease were awarded a free two minutes later and despite the Newmarket goal being well guarded they found the net from the resultant free. Kevin O’Sullivan responded for Newmarket with a point from distance. Newmarket created a number of attacking opportunities led by the inspiring Tony O’Keeffe at half back, but the final score of the half went to Tullylease and they turned over in front by 1-5 to 0-4.

John Lane pointed four minutes after the restart for Newmarket before the sides went on to exchange a brace of points, Denys O’Brien landing a super effort from distance by the sideline which left a solitary goal between the sides.

At the end of the quarter, Tullylease gradually added to their lead and as a result scored the games next four points. As the game entered the final ten minutes, Newmarket’s challenge was reignited. Kieran Hayes gathered possession and bore down on goal before offloading to Shane Murphy and he struck first time with an unstoppable shot to the top corner of the Tullylease net to reduce the arrears, 1-10 to 1-6. However, Newmarket’s respite was brief, as Tullylease quickly added two goals and also had two points in the next few minutes. John Lane then added a Newmarket free as the sides exchanged points. To their credit, Newmarket maintained their challenge to the end. Michael Kenneally raced in on goal and found the net from twenty yards before John Lane and Shane Murphy also added points before Newmarket’s first hurling outing of the year came to a conclusion.

The Newmarket team was…

John Ryan
John Scanlon		Pa O’Brien		Donnacha Fitzpatrick
Tony O’Keeffe		John McSweeney		Niall O’Connor
	Barry O’Leary (0-1)		Kevin O’Sullivan (0-1)
John Lane (0-4)		Denys O’Brien (0-2)		Colin O’Sullivan
Maurice Feehan		Robert Stack		Donnacha O’Dea
SUBS: Kieran Hayes, Shane Murphy (1-1), Michael Kenneally (1-0), William O’Flynn