2005 Irish Road Bowling, in the Country of Ireland and in Europe

March 17                Jerry Desmond Cup Final - Clonakilty, County Cork  

March 25-27          Bol-Fada Festival - Keady, County Armagh

May 6-8                 World Bowling - Skibbereen, County Cork

July 9-10                All Ireland Series I - North-East Cork, County Cork

August 6-7             All Ireland Series II - Armagh City, County Armagh

September 3-4      All Ireland Series III - New Ross, County Wexford

Junior C & Novice 1&2 All Irelands will be hosted by the Westport Club in County Mayo, September 3d and 4th weekend. (Thanks to Susan Greene for this update.)  

Sept. 30-Oct. 2     21st King & Queen of the Roads, Ballincurrig, County Cork

July 30, 2005   Results of the Junior B Championship

Ted Hegarty Lyre, Clonakilty was defeated by Paul O'Reilly, Armagh by 80 Metres

Kelly Mallon, Armagh defeated Denise Murphy from Ballinagree by 30 metres in a very close and exciting score in the final of the Ladies Intermediate Championship

Results of today's finals

Thomas Buckley, Cork beat Stephen McCann, Armagh in the U-16 boys

Dan Joe Holland, Cork beat Gerald McKee, Armagh in the Veterans Final

Paul O'Reilly, Armagh beat Ted Hegarty, Cork in the Junior B Final

Kelly Mallon, Armagh beat Denise Murphy, Cork in the Ladies Intermediate Final


Tomorrow's (July 31) Scores

Aidan Murphy, Mid Cork v Paul O'Reilly Boys U-18
Emma Fitzpatrick, Rosscarbery V Kelly Mallon U-16 Girls
Philip O'Donovan, Churchtown South V Eddie Carr

Thanks to:

Susan Greene
Bol Chumann na hEireann
086 3821760

Results  July 11, 2005

Well folks here are results from the All Irelands Weekend in Cork.

Junior A

Brian O Reily from Armagh won his first All Ireland in a thrilling contest that looked over at the halfway stage with O Donavan over two bowls in front with 4 shots left, O'Reily threw three milers to beat ODonavan by thirty yards.

Women's Under 18

Kelly Mallon from Madden, Armagh won in a similar fashion with a late surge to oust her Cork opponent.  Kelly now competes in another two All Ireland Finals in the Armagh leg of the finals in August, the under 16 and the ladies intermediate.

Intermediate

Gerry Heragarty from Cork beat Harry Toal from Armagh on the last shot.  Toal had his chances and should have been a bowl in front going into the capped line but for a poor throw that eventually cost him the score.

Ladies Senior

Debhla Toal from Armagh had a great win over Gretta Cormican from Cork.

Under 14

Shaun Short from Keady/Tassagh Road in Armagh added to his All-Ireland under 14 title last year in a great performance and a great prospect for Armagh in the bowling future.

Harry Toal won the Ulster Intermediate Championship by beating Mal Lappin and Martin Toal in the first to three scores.   

(Thanks to Fergal Carr for this update.)

Results of May 6 - 8, 2005 World Championships

World Road Bowling Championships

In Conjunction with CORK 2005

Marsh Road Skibbereen Co.Cork

The 4th World Road Bowling Championships over the weekend of 6th/ 8th May 2005 in Skibbereen were hailed as a major success by the visiting teams from the FKV and VSHB Associations from Germany, the NKB Association from Holland and the most recent additions to the world of Road Bowling,the ABIS Association from Italy as well as our counterparts from Northern Ireland. Despite the team and individual success by the bowlers of Bol Chumann na hEireann the overseas visitors thoroughly enjoyed the festival of bowling on the famous Marsh Road.  Brilliant sunshine greeted the crowds on the Saturday when the Girls Under 18 Scores got under way at 9.00am followed by the Boys u-18, Senior Ladies and the Senior Men's competition where Armagh's Michael Toal was defending the title he won in 1998.

 At the end of play Ireland's Denise Murphy from Ballinagree was in pole position in the Girls U-18 championship where her opponent would be Marjolein Kemperink from the NKB Association from Holland. John O'Rourke from Rylane qualified for the Boys final where his opponent, Ole Renken from the famed FKV Association in Germany held an advantage of 21.7 metres.

Some powerful bowling from Catriona O'Farrell of Carrigtwohill on Saturday almost ensured her of the title when she held an advantage 222.9 metres over Simone Davids from FKV with Chantal Oude Nijhuis NKB and Carmel Ryan also from the Carrigtwohill club qualifying for the final also.The eagerly awaited Senior Men's competition got under way at 1pm when 25 bowlers took to the roads with the goal of qualifying for Sunday's final and a chance to become World Champion. At end of play Michael Toal held pole position from his northern colleague Eddie Carr with strong competition from household European names such as Frido Walter, Eckerd Kerl and Jorg Gronewold from FKV, Rene Fox from the NKB as well as Anthony Gould and Pat O'Sullivan from Bol Chumann challenging for ultimate honours.At the end of the day the Irish team from Bol Chumann were crowned as World team champions at the presentation of prizes to the players.

The girls under 18 final on Sunday got proceedings under way on Sunday in a sea of colour from supporters from both sides airing their emotions with flag waving and cheering for every shot thrown by the players. Despite being narrowly beaten by her opponent on the day Denise Murphy had enough in hand to be crowned the inaugural Girls Under 18 Champion by a margin of 114.5 metres. As the crowds continued to swell at the venue

John O'Rourke overturned  the advantage that Ole Renken held to become the Boys U-18 Champion and Catriona O'Farrell held on to be crowned Senior Ladies World Champion with Carmel Ryanbowling superbly to take the runners up spot  to make it an Irish one/two.

When the MC Christy Santry called Pat O'Sullivan from Kealkil and Frido Walter FKV to the starting line at 1.30 for the first of the Senior Men's scores, the huge crowd that had gathered were eagerly awaiting the 4 contests that were ahead to see if Michael Toals advantage could be overturned. One by one they set off in an effort to cover as many metres as possible in their 10 throws, Anthony Gould from Fairhill in Cork City set off with Jorg Gronewold FKV & Rene Fox NKB played Eckerd Kerl FKV, but ultimately it came down to the 2 friends from Armagh to unveil the 4th World Road Bowling Champion. Toal started superbly and had increased his lead after 4 shots but slowly Eddie Carr started to eat into his lead and at the end of the day Carr had overturned the advantage held by Toal to become World Champion by a margin of 72.4 metres.

After 790 bowls had been thrown on the Marsh Road, Ireland had 4 new World Champions in the most social and enjoyable of sports.

At presentation of the prizes to the worthy winners each of the associations spoke in glowing terms of the organisation and the efficient manner in which the games had taken place, the friendliness of the people in West Cork and the welcome that they had recieved in Skibbereen. They looked forward to coming back in 2008 for the 13th European Bowling Championships in Cork.

Dominic Morgan sent us this March 25, 26 and 27 Bol-Fada report from Ireland - 

The first major bowling event on the Irish calender took place last weekend the 25th 26th 27th of March with the annual Bowl Fada competition.  The event took place some five miles south of Armagh city and featured a total of nine scores being played over the three days.  All scores played were Co. Armagh v. Co. Cork contests with Cork holding six wins to Armagh's three...

Bowl Fada results... Friday 25th March played over the Keady/Tassagh road course. Malachy Lappin and Cormac Garvey, Armagh. defeated Nicolas Carey and Seamus Sexton.Cork. Pat Mallon and Dervla Toal,Armagh defeated John Murphy and Carmel Ryan.Cork. Saturday the 26th played over the Ballymacnab road course Brian O Rielly.Armagh. defeated Tim Pat ODonovan.Cork...Gavin Twohig. Cork.defeated Paul Rafferty.Armagh....Nicolas and Tony Carey.Cork.defeated Harry Toal and Steven McCann.Armagh.....Aiden Murphy and Brian ODonovan.Cork.defeated Eamon ONeill and Shaun Shortt.Armagh....Sunday 27th Philip ODonovan.Cork defeated. Michael Toal.Armagh....Martin Coppinger and David Murphy.Cork.defeated Fergal Carr and Conor McGuigan.Armagh...And in the big contest of the event Kieran Gould.Cork.defeated Eddy Carr.Armagh. Next big date on the bowling calender the world championships at Skibbereen in May ...  yours in roadbowling Dominic Morgan ....Ireland