Newmarket bowed out of the minor hurling championship when they were defeated by St. Marks at Meelin on Monday evening by 2-14 to 1-5.

The home side took a while to adapt to the difficult conditions but once they found their range they racked up an impressive tally of points. The first score came in the sixth minute but by the end of the first quarter St. Marks had built up a five point lead. Newmarket defended resolutely with goalkeeper Nicky Barrett producing a few fine saves while in front of him the full back line of Jack Birtley, Denis McCarthy and Michael O’Leary performed admirably. St. Marks added to their tally and by half time they had amassed a total of twelve points. Newmarket failed to get on the scoreboard during the half but were unlucky on a few occasions, especially when the St Marks goalkeeper superbly stopped a bullet of an effort from David Quinlan.

Newmarket improved considerably upon the restart. Ian Flanagan converted a free and the impressive Conor Cronin landed a point from distance within four minutes. St Marks had to wait thirteen minutes for a score but tellingly it was the games opening goal. A point followed but Ian Flanagan scored three points in succession for Newmarket. As the game entered the final ten minutes, St Marks found the net for a second time but a battling Newmarket kept plugging away and were rewarded for their efforts when Conor Cronin pounced from close range for a consolation goal.

The Newmarket team was…

Nicky Barrett
Jack Birtley		Denis McCarthy		Michael O’Leary
Billy Daly		Brendan Stack		Damien Kelly
	Alan Forde		Conor Cronin (1-1)
Darren O’Keeffe		Ian Flanagan (0-4)		Paul Verling
Kieran Lehane		David Quinlan		Eddie Allen
SUBS: Ivan King, David Enright, Luke McCarthy, Vincent Molloy