SHANNONVALE held the crowd on Monday for a Phair Cup semi-final. If last week saw Gen-Z take the headlines, this week we can turn back the clock to the millennials, as David Murphy and James O’Donovan played for a stake of €5,720 a-side.
This was a trap-to-line victory for Murphy and as good a display of bowling as we have seen from him for a while.
After a poor first shot from O’Donovan, it was an uphill battle from there. Murphy was up past the rock in two. O’Donovan got an excellent third shot but Murphy beat this by 80 metres, which O’Donovan only beat by a metre with his fourth.
Murphy was out around the Quarry Bend, up past Buttimers pillars and out to Desmonds Cross in three more where O’Donovan did well to keep it to the bowl of odds – seven is the average to this point, so six is exceptional bowling.
O’Donovan lined an absolute miler off the Cross up to the flat of the road, and Murphy followed it but missed the tip by five metres. Murphy’s eighth, even if it was a bit lucky, made it past Kingston’s Wall, and O’Donovan missed this by a big margin.
Both players got caught left with their next shots, but Murphy still had big odds with the bowl. O’Donovan missed sight for Campbell’s and Murphy got every conceivable rub that was there and down full sight. Both were out to the last bend in two more and up past the Junior Line, Murphy won by two bowls after 12 fantastic bowls. Back the road, Shane O’Mahony beat Thomas Cronin by two bowls for €4,000 a-side.
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There was a big turnout for the selection of the girls’ U12 and U14 teams for Newcastle at Castletown on Saturday. High figures were set by Chloe Hubbard and Layla Fleming in U14 and by Aoife McCarthy and Aimee McCarthy in U12. Another selection date to take place in early March.
Also, John O’Rourke beat Andrew O’Callaghan in their junior tournament semi-final at Beál na Marbh, and the winner has secured his spot in the Hancy Hubbard Memorial Cup final where he will play John Young from Drinagh.
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Gealtacht and South West held their team events at Ballyvourney and The Pike with big turnouts at both venues. In the Gaeltacht, Diarmuid Lucey, Dan Lucey and DD McCarthy were tops with Shane O’Driscoll, John O’Driscoll and Brendan O’Callaghan in second place. For the South West, the Timoleague team of Donal O’Donovan, Ritchie Lawton and Brian Harrington came in ahead of the Pike team A team of Donal O’Sullivan, Mickey Harrington and Ger Shanahan.
