IT could only happen in schools' hockey. Newpark, a team with an enviable reputation at short corners, won 15 and scored none. Still, four goals from play was enough for the Blackrock side to live up to their billing as hot favourites and thus deprive brave Kilkenny College of making history in the final of the Leinster Senior Schoolboys hockey cup.

Despite some fearless defending by Kilkenny's Stuart Williams, David Smith, David Pearson, Paul Roche and particularly goalkeeper and captain Nigel Grothier, Newpark, like Wesley in the minor final before them, had both the finesse and organisation to take the game with some distance to spare.

With at least four of the winning team - Colm Brady, Will Powderly, Stephen Butler and Cliff Bailey - regularly playing for Leinster senior sides in Dublin, it was no surprise that they would dominate. And they did it from the beginning.

A furious opening that yielded four short corners in succession amounted to nothing but frustration for Newpark and when Bailey hit the post soon after it must have crossed their minds that the afternoon was going to require a significant amount of patience.

At half-time it was still 0-0 with Newpark knocking on the door at regular intervals. Finally Bailey nipped into a crowded circle and, snatching at a free, broke through the Kilkenny defence from close range to give his side the lead.

Soon after Powderly pivoted in the circle and cooly edged the ball into the corner with a deceptive push for the second goal. The YMCA player popped up again, this time as provider, and delivered to Bailey from the right, giving the Monkstown player a simple task to undercut from just five yards out for a 3-0 lead.

Stephen Barry then ended the scoring, and the game, as a swift counter attack initiated by man-of-the-match Stephen Butler allowed him smack in the fourth on the final whistle.