Newmarket ‘s U-21 Hurlers lost to Kanturk in the first round of the championship on Friday night last at Kanturk. Newmarket lost on a score line of 3-5 to 1-7 in an entertaining clash with last years finalists.

Newmarket got off a flying start when full-forward Michael Kenneally goaled with an unstoppable shot to the top corner after three minutes. Kanturk replied instantly with a point on four minutes and a scrappy goal from close range two minutes later. Newmarket levelled on fourteen minutes with a free from Kevin O’ Sullivan. They then took the lead for the second time in the match a minute later when the hard working Michael Kenneally scored a fine individual point after a long run under pressure from Kanturk defenders. Kanturk replied straight away after the puck out with another point. Both teams exchanged points for the remainder of the half with John Lane scoring two points in the process. The half ended with both teams level on 1-4 apiece in a very tight encounter with scores hard to come by.

The second half began with a point for Newmarket after the very impressive Kevin O’ Sullivan fielded brilliantly under pressure and scored a good point a minute into the half. Two minutes later Kevin pointed again to put Newmarket up by two points. They suffered a setback on thirty five minutes when Kanturk pointed and goaled on quick succession to turn the score line around to lead by two. Newmarket replied with another Kevin O’ Sullivan point three minutes later, unfortunately this proved to be their final score of the game. After Newmarket failed to capitalise on many score able opportunities from both placed balls and play Kanturk killed off all hopes of a comeback with a third goal with four minutes to go. The game ended with a four point win for Kanturk after a very spirited Newmarket performance.

Newmarket can take a lot of positives from the performance in which a few harsh decisions went against them. They performed admirably and never gave up throughout the game. Newmarket had some good individual performances with John Scanlon hurling well at centre back and wing back Niall O’ Connor performing good alongside him. Kevin O’ Sullivan can be happy with a final tally of four points from midfield. Up front Michael Kenneally had a great game contributing a goal and a point overall ably assisted by the industrious and hard working Robert Stack who created many openings through-out the game. Newmarket must wait to find out who they will play in the back door now.

The team was…

John Ryan
William O’ Flynn		Sean Irwin		Conor Cronin
Niall O’ Connor		John Scanlon		David Guiney
	Kevin O’ Sullivan (0-4)		Brian O’ Riordan
John Lane (0-2)		Nicky Flanagan		T.J. Bodie
Robert Stack		Michael Kenneally (1-1)		Ian Flanagan