BY KIERAN McCARTHY
WEST Cork’s best came up short in their quest to take the crowns on offer at the King and Queen of the Roads, but there’s no disputing Silke Tulk’s ascension to greatness.
The Dutch sensation has been dominant in the Queen of the Roads in recent years, threading together the last three titles in a row, and that dominance continued at Ballincurrig at the weekend.
Bantry's Martin Coppinger gets ready to throw in his King of the Road semi-final on Saturday.
Terrific Tulk has now won EIGHT Queen of the Roads titles, and this is the first-ever four-in-a-row, a nod to this bowling phenomenon. She had to bring her A-game, too, up against Ireland’s greatest, Armagh’s Kelly Mallon, but Tulke edged a gripping contest, her 16th throw heralded as a rocket that saw the Queen continue her reign.
On her way to Sunday’s final, Tulk won a semi-final on Friday that included Timoleague’s Geraldine Curtin, the reigning Munster champion, and All-Ireland champion Dervla Mallon. Curtin had never beaten Tulk or Mallon and had said in the lead-up that she would need the performance of a lifetime to upset the odds, and the West Cork bowler didn’t shirk the challenge.
Queen of the Road Silke Tulk and King of the Road Colm Rafferty.
While Tulk won with 16 shots to take the qualification spot in the final, Curtin finished second, beating Mallon in a play-off after they finished level. For Curtin, this was revenge of sorts as Mallon had beaten her in the All-Ireland final during the summer; that’s the one title that Curtin wants to get her hands on and on this evidence she’s not too far away.
The other Queen of the Roads semi-final saw Kelly Mallon win in 14 shots, leaving Germany’s Anke Klopper and Veronica O’Mahony in her wake. That performance saw Mallon, in some peoples’ eyes, put forward as the favourite for Sunday’s final, given Tulk didn’t overly impress in her semi-final. Tulk, however, showed her class and power to take the crown, again.
The Irish team of Ellen Sexton and Oisín Gribben (left) won the Proto-Mark Technologies Youth International Triple Crown.
In the King of the Roads, Bantry’s Martin Coppinger, the current Munster champion, carried West Cork hopes into Saturday’s semi-final against former King winner Thomas Mackle and European champion William Hobbelink from The Netherlands. As this semi-final progressed, Coppinger, after an encouraging start, conceded, as it became a duel between Hobbelink and Mackle, with the former winning with his last shot to become the first Dutch player in the history of the competition to qualify for the final. There he met All-Ireland champion Colm Rafferty who had come through his semi-final with German champ Stefan Runge and Arthur McDonagh. In Sunday’s final, Hobbelink couldn’t reproduce his semi-final performance of the day before, leaving Rafferty to take the King crown without ever needing to find his best form.
There was West Cork success at Ballincurrig as Timoleague bowler Ellen Sexton teamed up with Oisín Gribben to win the Proto-Mark Technologies Youth International Triple Crown. Ellen joins an exclusive club, including her older sister Hannah, who have won this title twice. Sexton and Gribben were too strong for The Netherlands duo of Bart Lucas and Merle Aveskamp and the German team of Flynn Meyerhoff and Neele Carstens, as the Irish team won by a bowl, with Germany taking second place.
There was more Cork success, too, when Tommy O’Sullivan came out on top in the Jim O’Driscoll Cup final against Ethan Rafferty.
