Our Junior A hurlers were pipped at the post in the opening round of the Mid Junior A hurling Championship in Holycross on Friday evening last. A strong wind prevailed towards Thurles town in the opening half which favoured Brackens. Darragh Doyle and Eoin Fitzpatrick got us underway with points from play in the opening two points before Holycross repeated the trick to level things up. Fitzpatrick's second, Joe Bourke and Martin Bergin fired over three points in quick succession to lead 0-5 to 0-2 after eight minutes. Darragh Doyle and Martin Bergin both landed their second points from play with the home side matching us with two of their own. Holycross struck their opening goal shortly after to level the game which was a blow to Brackens considering the strength of the breeze. They rallied well however with points from play from Doyle, Fitzpatrick and Aidan Fogarty. Holycross were hanging in though and closed the gap to one before Joe Bourke sprung to life with a cracking goal and followed up a minute later with a point. Holycross had the last two points of the half to leave Brackens ahead 1-11 to 1-8 at half-time. The home side were strong favourites now with the elements behind them and had the gap down to one within three minutes. Aidan Fogarty grabbed his second from play to stem the side but two more had Holycross level inside six minutes. They looked odds on but Brackens showed great heart and played some of their best hurling over the next ten minutes to pull four clear thanks to scores from Eddie Bergin (2), Eoin Fitzpatrick, Darragh Doyle and Joe Bourke (1-17 to 1-13). Holycross pulled one back before a great point from Jack Nevin restored our four point advantage. The turning point came when Jack Fogarty was very unlucky not to be awarded a free in and the ball was in the Brackens net seconds later. This gave Holycross all the momentum and they tacked on four unanswered points to lead 2-18 to 1-18. Joe Bourke's late point made it a one score game but the final whistle came with the home side two points to the good. Our next game is against Thurles Sarsfields in the Park on Saturday evening at 8pm.

Team and Scorers: Nick Keane, Tadhg Nolan, Diarmuid Delaney, Jack Fogarty, Jack Nevin (0-1), Adrian Bourke, Stephen Cahill, Aidan Fogarty (0-2), Eoin Fitzpatrick (0-3), Eddie Bergin (0-2), Darragh Doyle (0-4, 0-1f), Martin Bergin (0-2), Joe Bourke (1-4), Michael Egan, Lorcan Egan. Subs Used: Mikey Delaney for Martin Bergin, Pat Brett for Michael Egan, Martin Bergin for Aidan Fogarty.

Referee: Kevin Jordan (Thurles).