A point in the final seconds of injury time denied Newmarket a share of the spoils in an exciting junior B hurling league contest against Meelin at the latter’s venue on Wednesday evening, the home side edging victory by 4-9 to 1-17.

Meelin opened the scoring with a point in the first minute, in what was Newmarket’s first league outing this year. Newmarket settled and impressed as a string of points followed from the excellent Bryan O’Connell who pointed twice, Colin O’Sullivan and Shane Murphy and all three enjoyed a productive evening in the scoring stakes.

Newmarket’s lead was wiped out on Meelin finding the net for the first time in the twelveth minute and a point followed as they edged in front. Newmarket regained the lead at the end of the first quarter, 1-4 to 1-2, when a Conor Cronin free found the net. Shane Murphy pointed next as the sides exchanged points. Newmarket dominated for a spell and an array of fine points followed. Six points were scored in total with the prolific Shane Murphy getting three, Colin O’Sullivan two and Paul Verling one. Newmarket enjoyed a substantial eight point lead at this stage but critically Meelin found the net for a second time in the dying seconds of the half and Newmarket went into the break leading by 1-11 to 2-3 after a highly entertaining half.

Newmarket were minus the services of the influential Conor Cronin for the second half and the first ten minutes proved pivotal to the final result as Meelin plundered two goals and two points without reply during this spell to completely turn the contest around in their favour as they led by 4-5 to 1-11. Newmarket recovered from this blitz with the excellent Bryan O’Connell scoring a brace of points and at the three quarter stage, just a point separated the sides again, 4-5 to 1-13. A contest that flowed from end to end saw the sides exchange points as Shane Anthony Murphy found the target twice for Newmarket before Colin O’Sullivan tied proceeding for a third time, 4-7 to 1-16 with seven minutes to play. Meelin edged in front again but Newmarket after labouring for a period appeared to rescue a point when Colin O’Sullivan landed an equalising point from distance, but in the remaining seconds the home side proceeded to add the decisive score and claim the points from an exciting contest.

The Newmarket team was…

Kieran Hayes
William O’Flynn		John McSweeney		Donnacha Fitzpatrick
Brendan Stack		Pa O’Brien		Billy Daly
	Conor Cronin (1-0)		Timothy Murphy
Bryan O’Connell (0-4)		Shane Anthony Murphy (0-2)		David Kelly
Paul Verling (0-1)		Colin O’Sullivan (0-5)		Shane Murphy (0-5)
SUB: Séan Irwin