BALLINACURRA hosted a busy day of bowling on Saturday. First off was a junior A tournament semi-final between Kieran Murphy and Eoin O’Riordan, with Murphy as the favourite here.
Playing for a total stake of €500, O’Riordan took the first three shots to Brinny cross and held the lead to the waterworks. After two more to Perriot’s sheds Murphy took his first lead by five metres. After two more to the GAA pitch Murphy was still in front. From a very difficult stand and with no sight, O’Riordan made back of the silvery gates to retake the lead by five metres. After three more up past the avenue O’Riordan had a 25-metre advantage. Two poor bowls in succession put Murphy in trouble and with no road left to whittle down the odds, O’Riordan was a comfortable winner in two more shots over the line.
Ballinacurra continued with a junior B tournament score between two youthful exponents of the game, Brian O’Driscoll playing Cillian Kelleher. After three huge bowls through Brinny Cross, O’Driscoll had a 40-metre lead; he held this advantage with two more to the gasworks. Kelleher, from back of the gasworks, lined one of the longest bowls ever thrown in Ballinacurra from that point to Perrot’s pillars – that rose for him almost a bowl of odds as O’Driscoll only beat the tip by five metres in two shots.
Kelleher followed on with another huge bowl to the hurling alley that raised the bowl. From there he made back of the bridge with three huge bowls. O’Driscoll got an incredible bowl from Innishannon Cross for the finish line, Kelleher only made the novice D line and was then only throwing his odds.
Kelleher went well out the straight, O’Driscoll missed the line and Kelleher only beat the tip by four metres for the last shots. O’Driscoll played the perfect bowl past the avenue; it was a very unlucky bowl not to go further. It didn’t look like it would be missed by Kelleher but O’Driscoll had luck on his side and rubbed out of the dyke to beat the tip by four metres. In two further scores Declan Murphy beat Jim Coffey for €2,750 a-side and Jim Coffey beat Eoin McCarthy for €2,000 a-side.
***
A senior ladies Group B score played at Ballinacarriga saw Denise Murphy take on Maria Nagle. Murphy took the first two shots but then Nagle took over, mainly due to two poor shots in succession from Murphy, as her third and fourth put her a bowl down at McSweeney’s. Nagle got super third, fourth and fifth shots to the white pillars and had big odds with the bowl. Murphy rallied well from there to Lynch’s Bend where she had the gap down to an even bowl. Murphy knocked the bowl with a great tenth but it was only brief as Nagle got a massive bowl out past the Creamery to raise big odds with the bowl again. Nagle covered all that Murphy threw at her from her to the finish to win out by a bowl of odds.
***
The first championship final of the season took place at Doneraile between Timmy McDonagh (Snr), father of Arthur, and Timmy (Jnr) for a total stake of €2,900. The bowling was not of the highest order however McDonagh took a bowl of odds out the first bend and held the odds to the no-play line. At the no-play line McDonagh had two full bowls. He held this on up the hill to the finish line.
In Terelton in a junior A championship score Bryan O’Halloran played Andrew O’Callaghan; there was no stake in this one. After three shots O’Halloran was throwing over 50 metres. After two more his odds increased to 70 metres, but O’Callaghan let rip a very well-played bowl to the garage. O’Halloran followed this bowl and beat it again by 60 metres. He extended his lead to 150 metres at the Ducks house but again O’Callaghan rallied to keep it under the bowl and at the Novice E line, only 30 metres separated them. A poor bowl from O’Callaghan and O’Halloran rose the bowl at the Novice line and held it to the end.
***
Three club finals were completed last weekend the first up was a Novice C at Firmount where Luke Philpot played Stephen Spillane for a total stake of €3,800 and had a convincing win of two bowls.
At Jagoes Mills, Timmy Murphy was sublime in his performance against Denis Wilmot – he led from start to finish in the Pat O’Sullivan Memorial Cup final for a total stake of €5,100, Murphy had an early bowl of odds in this score after two big opening shots. With two more for Murphy to the dump, this was big bowling and at this juncture he had the rising of two bowls. At the railway entrance the two bowls were up, Murphy drove on with ten super bowls to Kelleher’s Cross where he won by two bowls.
Ballinagree held the final of the Bold Thady Quill Cup on Sunday between James O’Donovan, Aidan Murphy and Gary Daly. It went off for a total stake of €24,300. Daly took the first two shots of this final, then Murphy took the lead and held it for the next three shots. A poor sixth from Daly and suddenly he found himself a bowl down. O’Donovan replied with a massive sixth bowl up through Capailin Ban Cross to give him his first lead by 50 metres over Murphy and a bowl on Daly.
After two more from O’Donovan he rose further odds on Murphy and had big odds with the bowl on Daly. Murphy got an incredible ninth shot and O’Donovan was left of play and dropped a lot of odds as he only beat Murphy’s tip by ten metres. Both Murphy and O’Donovan were throwing their odds over 40 metres on Daly. O’Donovan followed a huge 11th from Murphy to keep his nose in front by five metres; both had a bowl on Daly here.
Murphy was back in front by 50 metres on O’Donovan after a huge 12th. He rose further odds up to the Post Office and another incredible bowl out to the Quay Wall where he had almost a bowl on both. At this point O’Donovan and Daly were level. Both could not reel Murphy in as he finished with three more perfect bowls to take the Bold Thady Cup and the winning prize of €1,800, O’Donovan came second as Daly had a poor finish.
The East Cork junior B championship final took place at Conna, as John O’Donoghue (Jnr) played PJ Cooney. O’Donoghue had a bowl of odds early in this score, but Cooney kept it under the bowl at Coleman’s corner. Donoghue raised the bowl again at Cullinane’s and at the bridge it was under the bowl again, but O’Donoghue raised the bowl again at the end of the railings and extended his odds at Mullin’s and raised the second bowl at the gas line.
***
Ból Chumann held their novice team county finals at Castletown. Seventeen teams fought it out for the Sliabh Ban Trophy and a place in the novice All-Irelands in Drogheda in September. City were the early leaders in this competition, but were relegated down to third position by the two strong teams from North East. The following was the order of finish with the top four teams to progress to the All-Irelands: 1. Carrignavar (Brian Quinlan, Jake Bowen and Patrick Connolly) 1269.4mt; 2. Bottlehill (Dillon McDonnell, Aaron McDonnell and Darragh O’Donovan) 1262.7mt; 3. Curraheen (Gary Maguire, Tony Delaney and Jason McCarthy) 1205.6mt; 4. Kilcorney (Alan Sexton, Mickey McAuliffe and James Collins) 1193.3mt. Full results on Ból Chumann’s Facebook page.
