Newmarket and Ballingeary played out a high quality draw in an intermediate league game played in Macroom on Tuesday evening, a thrilling encounter ending 2-12 apiece.

Ballingeary stormed out of the blocks and reeled off four points within the first five minutes. Newmarket responded with a productive spell that yielded three points in succession through David O’Flynn, John Lane and Tony O’Keeffe all within the opening ten minutes.

Ballingeary took control as they scored the first goal of the evening and a point followed before they repeated the feat with a second goal and another point leaving a nine point difference between the sides 2-6 to 0-3 after sixteen minutes.

Newmarket contributed to a rip roaring contest and brought themselves into the game again when the outstanding Kevin O’Sullivan responded fastest to a ball that came off an upright before expertly clipping a pass across the square to Nicky Flanagan who made no mistake in finding the net from close range. The excellent David O’Flynn added two superb points which both instigated deep within the Newmarket defence before some blistering quickfire passing movements yielded the scores.

Once more, Ballingeary enjoyed a productive spell as they scored three of the last four points of the half as T.J. Bodie pointed Newmarket’s final score of the half which left them trailing by 2-9 to 1-6.

As the second half got underway, it was Newmarket’s turn to blitz from the outset. John Lane pointed twice either side of a T.J. Bodie score and all three were again as a result of excellent approach play. Ten minutes into the half and Ballingeary registered their first score since the turnover as Newmarket’s defence tightened considerably and made some telling interceptions and launched several free flowing moves from the back. Newmarket’s hopes were further strengthened in the forty third minute when a probing pass from Barry O’Leary found John Lane who raced in on goal before producing a bullet of a finish to the net for a superbly executed goal to leave the score reading 2-10 to 2-9.

Ballingeary had the next point but a rampant Newmarket were in full gear with fine individual performances littered throughout the field. Kevin O’Sullivan scored a point his performance truly deserved before John Lane brought the sides level for the first time of the night at 2-11 apiece with six minutes remaining as Newmarket retrieved a nine point deficit from early in the game in impressive fashion. Both sides left nothing in reserve throughout as they both pushed on to clinch victory. Ballingeary edged in front again late in the contest and despite the fact that time was rapidly against them, Newmarket kept pushing forward and gained a priceless equalizer late into injury time when half back Brian O’Riordan kept his composure in a crowded goalmouth to clip over a point to bring a memorable contest to a fitting conclusion.

The Newmarket team and scorers…

John Lane (1-4), David O’Flynn (0-3), Nicky Flanagan (1-0), T.J. Bodie (0-2), Tony O’Keeffe (0-1), Brian O’Riordan (0-1), Kevin O’Sullivan (0-1).

Niall O’Connor
T. J. Brosnan		Gerard Casey		Michael O’Leary
Barry O'Leary		Timothy Murphy		Brian O’Riordan
	Bart Daly		Mark Murphy
David O’Flynn		Tony O'Keeffe		Kevin O'Sullivan
John Lane		Denys O'Brien		Nicky Flanagan
Subs: T.J. Bodie, John Ryan, Conor Cronin, Shane Murphy.