Newmarket’s junior hurlers were defeated by near neighbours Meelin by 0-12 to 0-5 in the opening round of the EPS Bison Duhallow championship played on an awful evening on an immaculate playing surface at the latter’s venue on Tuesday evening.

Conditions and a difficult cross field breeze got the better of both sides as numerous scoring opportunities went a begging during the hour. The home side registered the first point in the second minute and doubled their advantage six minutes later. John Lane got Newmarket on the scoreboard in the ninth minute. Scores were at a premium and Newmarket had plenty of possession but failed to add to their tally. Meelin added two more points to their total to take a three point advantage. Substitute, Ian Flanagan was given the task of taking a free in when introduced and he duly found the target with just five minutes left to play in the half. Meelin restored a three point advantage, 0-5 to 0-2 as a dour first half came to a conclusion.

Newmarket resumed brightly and Denys O’Brien burst forward to hit over a point within a minute. Meelin replied with a point but Ian Flanagan converted a free to reduce the arrears to two points. The sides exchanged two more points as Ian Flanagan was again on target and by the end of the third quarter, Newmarket trailed by two points, 0-5 to 0-7. Meelin gradually increased their lead thanks to two further points. Newmarket battled gamely with John McSweeney, Brian Daly and Anthony Crowley prominent in defence and Barry O’Leary a driving force at midfield. Unfortunately, Newmarket failed to breach the Meelin rearguard and were unlucky on a couple of occasions not to get the games opening goal. As the contest came to a conclusion Meelin grew in stature and added three more points to run out clear victors.

The Newmarket team was:

John Ryan
Pa O’Brien		Brian Daly		John Scanlon
Kevin O’Sullivan		John McSweeney		Anthony Crowley
	Colin O’Sullivan		Barry O’Leary
Tony O’Keeffe		Denys O’Brien (0-1)		John Lane (0-1)
Seanie Francis O’Connor		Robert Stack		Maurice Feehan
SUBS: Ian Flanagan (0-3), Nicky Flanagan, Shane Anthony Murphy, Niall O’Connor