ROAD bowling offers West Cork’s finest their best chance of success at the European Bowling Championships this weekend, but Hannah Sexton agrees that it also carries the most pressure.
Over Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Neuharlingersiel in Germany, bowlers from Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy will battle it out in three national disciplines – Irish Road Bowling, Dutch Moors Bowling and German Lofting.
Saturday will see road bowling take centre stage, and the Ból Chumann Irish team will want to dominate their own event.
‘Definitely, there is pressure,’ Hannah Sexton says.
‘Everyone wants to get onto the road team, and I found we were under so much more pressure in the trials compared to the Moors and the Lofting because everyone is fighting to get onto the roads team.
‘Everyone at home knows road bowling. If you say you’re on the Moors and the lofting teams, they are asking what are you on about.
‘Competing on the road is savage pressure, it’s an Irish sport, we developed it, we perfected it and it’s what we are built to do and perform at. We have an unbelievable record, we came home with three gold medals the last time. The whole team is fighting for those road places.’
Sexton finished fifth on the road at her first Europeans in 2022, also the year she won the Munster senior women’s title in her first season as a senior. Two years on, the Timoleague bowler (22) feels she’s in a better position to improve on her 2022 placing, while also making an impact in Dutch Moors (ten shots on grass, and greatest distance wins).
‘Road, definitely, that’s what I am focussed and dead set on it, but I would love to give the Moors a good go because I think we are capable of placing in it. It’s about getting your technique right and how important every single shot is,’ she says.
‘The road is the target, but I’d love to boost my Moors finish of eighth from last time and I think we are capable of getting higher up in the rankings.’
Sexton’s experience from the 2022 Europeans should also aid her quest for glory this weekend.
‘It was really surreal the last time because it was my first Europeans and you didn’t know what to expect, how to mind yourself and prepare from one day to the next. I know throwing ten shots seems easy, but it’s not – it takes everything, you’re throwing the kitchen sink at it,’ she says.
‘Being prepared every single day to perform to the best of your ability takes a lot; I remember the last time after the road, I was wrecked after it. You have trained for months and months, and you want to get the best score you can, and you’re set on throwing every shot to perfection, it takes a lot.’
Adding an extra layer to this weekend is that two of Hannah’s younger sisters, Ellen and Laura, are on the girls’ youths team, so incredibly three Sexton sisters will throw on the European stage, with Hannah and Ellen in action in all three disciplines and Laura competing on the road and in lofting.
‘The team was announced last week and luckily all three of us are throwing on the road,’ Hannah says, ‘It’s unbelievable in one sense, that three sisters are on the team. It’s competitive, to see who can get the highest scores! We were in the groups together during the trials and after each one it was about who got the highest score, who beat who, and who was going to make it.
‘It’s everyone’s target to perform on the road so it’s brilliant that all three of us are. Everyone is very proud here at home.’
Sexton is a key member of the Irish women’s senior panel that also includes Geraldine Curtin, Hannah Cronin, Ciara Buckley, Emma Hickey, Veronica O’Mahony, Dervla Toal-Mallon, and Rachel Desmond, with six selected to make up the Ból Chumann road bowling team for Saturday – and, not surprisingly, Sexton has made the cut. The plan now is to make an impact on the road this weekend.
