Newmarket’s junior hurlers suffered defeat in their initial league outing of the season, where they went under to a sharp and lively Meelin side by 1-23 to 3-5 at the latter’s venue on Tuesday evening.

Newmarket got off to an ideal start when midfielder Conor Cronin converted a well taken long range free from just inside his own half within the opening minute. Meelin quickly gained parity and set about their task by rifling over an array of points of different varieties to lead by 0-6 to 0-1 after fifteen minutes. Newmarket struggled to cope with their opponents’ brand of quickfire hurling and three more points followed before Ian Flanagan added Newmarket’s second point in the twentieth minute. The sides exchanged the next couple of points with Ian Flanagan again on target. Meelin however confirmed their supremacy in the remaining minutes of the half on adding three points before eventually finding a way past Newmarket’s excellent goalkeeper Paul Verling, who produced a string of memorable saves during the contest, in the closing moments of the half to turnover with a lead of 1-13 to 0-3.

Meelin further increased their lead on adding two points before Ian Flanagan had a Newmarket point from a free. Newmarket improved considerably as the game progressed and this coincided with the introduction of the lively and industrious Tony O’Keeffe who laid a ball into the path of Shane Murphy and his pass across field in front of the Meelin goal was caught by the inrushing Robert Stack and he found the net from close range. Newmarket were further boosted when Ian Flanagan after being upended, stepped forward and crashed a free to the back of the net for a second Newmarket goal. A converted free from the impressive Kevin O’Sullivan left the score at 1-17 to 2-5 entering the final quarter. Meelin, maintained their superb accuracy on the night by adding the next four points in as many minutes but Newmarket kept up their momentum and the endeavours of Robert Stack contributed to a third goal which was finished clinically by Nicky Flanagan. The home side had the final say by scoring the last two points to run out very clear victors.

The Newmarket team was…

Paul Verling
Barry O’Leary		John Scanlon		Donnacha Fitzpatrick
Brendan Stack		Kevin O’Sullivan (0-1)		Anthony Crowley
	John Ryan		Conor Cronin (0-1)
Shane Murphy		Robert Stack (1-0)		Colin O’Sullivan
Nicky Flanagan (1-0)		John McSweeney		Ian Flanagan (1-3)
SUBS: Tony O’Keeffe, Timmy O’Keeffe, Michael Kenneally, David Kelly.