REGIONAL junior A championships are winding down across the county. All-Ireland final date for the competition is pencilled in for Saturday, July 13th at Castletownkenneigh and deadlines for inter-regional rounds are close at hand.
The junior A is bowling’s second oldest championship, in existence since 1958, and the pre-eminent competition at regional level. However, the down-grading trend of recent decades has seen its impact diluted. A limited number of contenders in many regions results in a minimum number of scores deciding outright winners. Nevertheless, the grade holds a certain aura, and county and All-Ireland winners hold a special place in the record books.
Three regional finals were played out at the weekend while Gaeltacht have completed their championship. Cian Boyle’s late surge won him the City junior A crown after a terrific battle with Trevor O’Meara at Templemichael.
Clon’s Johnny O’Driscoll, an All-Ireland winner in the grade in 2009, is back for another tilt after winning the South-West final at Shannonvale on Sunday morning. Playing Jimmy O’Driscoll on a road where the winner had recorded a string of victories in the recent past, Johnny showed his paces again, taking good odds to ‘Desmond’s cross’ where he lofted across in eight. Jimmy levelled it up with a super throw on the rise and it went shot for shot in good bowling to the ‘palms’. A mistake here by Jimmy when throwing for ‘Campbell’s’ left the former champion in the clear and it is Johnny O’Driscoll who moves to a county quarter-final against City or London. Ballyvourney in the Gaeltacht will be hosts for that fixture.
Bucking the trend in West Cork is Noel O’Regan, a first-time junior A champion in the region after a stirring battle with fellow clubman and defending champion, Peter Murray, at their home Togher Cross venue on Saturday evening. Last year’s county junior B champion O’Regan was on the back foot in this contest as Murray opened with three excellent casts and then followed up to take a good advantage through the ‘cross’.
O’Regan levelled with two of the finest from the ‘bridge’ to ‘Hurley’s’. It was the start of a purple patch for the grade’s debutant as he proceeded to dominate with excellent bowling to ‘Derrinacarragh school’. Murray was game to the end but O’Regan, on a roll, would not be caught and claimed back-to-back championships in impressive style. He faces Gaeltacht’s Eoin O’Riordan in a preliminary county round contest at Castletownkenneigh.
There was a big turnaround in the Gaeltacht junior A shoot-out at Baile Mhuirne. Macroom’s Eoin O’Riordan and Terry Mallon clashed, and it was Mallon, for a €1,300 stake, who stormed into a big early lead that amounted to close on two bowls of odds after three shots. O’Riordan put his early hesitancy behind him and lined three in succession of the highest order to level. Buoyed by his comeback, the Macroom man went on to win the contest by almost a bowl. As regional junior A winner, O’Riordan will play West Cork champion Noel O’Regan in a preliminary county round contest at Castletownkenneigh.
Elsewhere around the county, in North-East the Murphy brothers Michael and Timmie will battle it out for the junior A championship. Doneraile is the chosen venue. There is a family connection too in the Mid Cork decider – cousins Kieran and Sean Murphy will face off on the weekend May 18th/19th at a venue to be decided. The East Cork junior A championship has four still involved in what looks like an evenly matched shoot-out – John O’Donoghue, Mick Hurley, Willie O’Donovan and James Cooney will fight it out here.
Darragh Dempsey and David Shannon will go head-to-head for the Carbery junior A championship at The Marsh Road on Saturday, May 18th with the winner meeting Noel O’Regan/Eoin O’Riordan in the quarter-final at Ballygurteen. Meanwhile in North Cork there is a semi-final line-up of Edmund Sexton v Dean Sexton and Mark Bourke v Vincent Kiely with the final pencilled in for May 26th.
A word from Jerome Casey from the London region confirms Patrick O’Driscoll, having won his best of three with Colin O’Donovan, will carry that region's banner into the inter-regional rounds. London are also in the preliminaries and O’Driscoll plays City champion Cian Boyle for a place in the quarter-finals at Ballyhooley.
