THE Newtown tornado hit Fermoy last evening as Ben O'Connor brought his own brand of charisma to the game, leaving abysmal Midleton high and dry.

His inspirational display inspired Newtownshandrum to a magnificent victory in the permanent tsb senior hurling championship.

O'Connor, one of three brothers featuring, was in dazzling mood, scoring 2-8 and setting up many more as the north Cork side let fly in this third round victory.

Midleton had no fire and no answer. And to further complicate matters Peter Smith was sent off after 20 minutes for a reckless pull on O' Connor.

However, he gave his answer in no un- certain manner. His second goal was as cheeky as you'll see. After splitting the defence he hit his shot from close range - but first he bounced the sliotar off the ground as he sent it on its way.

There were many more wonderful displays. in fact, all six goals were of the vintage type.

Coach Tom Ryan showed his own unquenchable enthusiasm: "We played top-class hurling with some very good quality goals that we have not seen in any grade this year.

" We hit them with three fantastic goals in the opening half. The scores alone were worth coming to see. Our forwards were excellent and our backs were tight. They played exactly as I wanted them to," he said.

"We don't mind now being ranked as favourites because that is what we want to do - we want to play hurling at top level. Let's hope we can reproduce this form again. We came to win. 1 am very happy and say - bring on whoever is coming next."

While O'Connor was outstanding, this was far from a one-man band. The extra body was corner back John McCarthy who cleared lots of ball and he was well assisted by the Mulcahy brothers, Brendan and Pat, who mopped up whatever else came their way.

Midfield also swung in their favour, and in attack the speed of the half line of Jerry O'Connor, Mike Morrissey and John Paul King created all sorts of havoc, with King hitting the net first after eight minutes.

Scorers - Newtownshandrum: B O'Connor 2-8 (O-5frees), J P King 2-1, Jerry O'Connor 1-2, J Bowles 1-0, M Morrissey 0-2.
Midleton: L Walsh 1-2 (0-2frees), M O'Connell 0-2, M Keohane and G Manley 0-1 each.
NEWTOWNSHANDRUM: P Morrissey, A G O'Brien, B Mulcahy, J McCarthy; P Noonan, P Mulcahy, J O'Mahony; A T O'Brien, D Murphy; Jerry O'Connor, M Morrissey (capt), J P King; J Bowles, John O'Connor, B O'Connor.
Subs: D Naughton for J Bolwes (46mins), M Farrell for P Noonan (50 mins), W Biggane for Jerry O'Connor (50 mins), J Noonan for John O'Connor (55 mins), J O'Mahony for B O'Connor (60 mins).

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