Newtown a class apart

Newtownshandrum 2-18 Patrickswell 2-9

They became the first Cork side since Midleton in 1987 to reign in Munster, and they did it in their own unique swash-buckling style.

This was the free-wheeling, free-running, free-scoring Newtown side that had defied the odds in winning the intermediate championship in Cork in 1996; this was the possession-keeping, precision-passing, smart-hurling Newtownshandrum side nurtured by Bernie O'Connor that had won three Cork U21 premier titles on the trot; this was a return to the impeccable hurling that had seen them make the senior breakthrough in Cork in 2000.