THE junior ladies county final took centre stage at Beál na Bláth, as Marie Russell from Drimoleague and Kay Kelly, originally Kathleen Cooney from Kilcorney, contested, with a stake of €1,100.
A super opening shot from Kay saw her with the bones of a bowl of odds, but her next five shots were left of play and off target. Here, Marie now had almost a bowl advantage. Kay got massive seventh and eight bowls past the Bulls Gate and sight for the novice line but Marie followed and beat them to keep her bowl of odds advantage. Three more bowls each out around O’Mahony’s bend where it was under the bowl, Kay’s bowl was very unlucky here; it looked perfect but veered up right. Marie finished with two perfect bowls over the finish line to win by a bowl and take the junior county title.
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Wayne Parkes retained the Tim Foley Cup at Templemartin when he took on Denis O’Sullivan for a total stake of €5,300. O’Sullivan opened with four great bowls to Slynes corner where he had a bowl and odds. Parkes was too tight with his sixth and now he faced almost two bowls of odds. Parkes played the perfect seventh and knocked a lot of odds with it, but undid all his good work with a poor eighth. The winner upped his game from here to the Stonefield bend where Parkes lined four huge bowls and had the odds down to 12 metres. The margin was down to two metres at Buttimers and eventually with his 14th shot Parkes took his first lead. Two more each to the layby where O’Sullivan was back in front for the home straight. Parkes missed the line in two from here and O’Sullivan missed a bad tip and a bad finish line; his last was not great and Parkes beat it easily.
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Lyre recently held the final of their novice D tournament, as Paul Twomey from Newcestown took on Tadhg O’Driscoll from Carrigtwohill; they played for a total stake of €3,800. Both reached the Masons bend in four each, Twomey made a bad blunder here and could have had a bowl advantage. The next shots were the ones that decided the score – O’Driscoll made the steps and made a great effort to go down the hill again but it got caught left, while Twomey got down to the layby in two great bowls where he had almost a bowl.
After three more to the double gates it was still under the bowl. A bad effort here from Twomey and the lead was suddenly down to 40 metres. O’Driscoll, though, played two very poor bowls from here and Twomey was in control again by a bowl and 60 metres at the school. Back of the Creamery the two bowls were up. Two more well-played bowls from Twomey over the hump where matters were terminated and he took the Paddy O’Donovan Memorial Cup.
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A Jerry Desmond Cup quarter-final score was played at Timoleague between Michael John O’Brien and Denis Wilmot. Conditions were not great here, and it started with three average bowls from both players. A poor fourth from Wilmot and O’Brien had 60 metres of odds. A great fifth from Wilmot was not enough to take him across to Batemans Wall, while O’Brien was well above Batemans in seven where he had a bowl of odds.
Facing up the steep hill, O’Brien held his bowl advantage. At the Cottage Wilmot got a reprieve as O’Brien’s bowl was very left. There was now only the bare bowl in it. At O’Leary’s entrance, the bowl of odds was down. With five shots to go Wilmot found his groove and put down two great bowls to take the lead by 20 metres. Or maybe the swing can be traced to O’Brien’s three poor bowls. While Wilmot found himself hind bowl for the last shot, he put down a perfect bowl but it was not enough as O’Brien beat this by 40 metres to progress to the semi-final playing Gavin Twohig. The total stake in this score was €5,000.
