Road Bowling: O'Donovan, Twohig and Boyle claim wins at Munster Junior A championship
ROAD BOWLING: The new-look Munster Junior A championship took centre stage last weekend with wins for Noel O’Donovan, Gavin Twohig and Cian Boyle. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Honan
The new-look Munster Junior A championship took centre stage last weekend with wins for Noel O’Donovan, Gavin Twohig and Cian Boyle.
O’Donovan defeated David O’Mahony in a mid-Cork derby at Ballinacurra. He won the first two throws. O’Mahony won the third towards Brinny Cross and held the lead at the next tip. O’Donovan regained the lead with his fifth to Foley’s and led to the finish. A huge bowl past the gasworks pushed him almost a bowl clear. He raised a full bowl at Perrott’s and held it to the bridge. He raised a second bowl with a nice effort to the silver gate. He made light on the straight with his next one, leaving O’Mahony with no route back.
The other two contests saw contrasting fortunes for former European youth champions. Cian Boyle did just enough to pip, the online voice of bowling, Éamon Bowen, at Conna. In the Clubhouse Gavin Twohig overcame 2020 European youth champion, Darragh Dempsey.
Boyle and Bowen made the green in four, with Boyle fore by five metres. Bowen won his first lead with his sixth to Cullinane’s and was still in front by 10m after eight to the bridge. He won the first decent lead of the day with a huge bowl to Meade’s. Boyle cancelled it immediately with an equally good one to the end of the railing. Two shots later Bowen gained a good lead again facing the gas-line.
Boyle won the decisive lead with a big 15th shot past the novice line. Bowen made a great bid to rescue the situation with a big last bowl, but Boyle beat it by 10m.
At the Clubhouse, Twohig raised a bowl after brilliant second and third shots to the chips. They battled over that lead, till Twohig pushed well over a bowl clear again to Clonakilty cross. He then edged towards a second bowl. He was still a bowl in front at O’Riordan’s, but Dempsey knocked the bowl with a super throw to the end of the garage. Twohig regained the bowl with a long throw to the school. Dempsey continued to challenge, but Twohig defended his lead well.
All the stars were colliding in the Munster intermediate women’s championship. Rachel Kingston, who won a European U18 gold medal in 2020, had too much for bowling’s livestreaming celebrity, Michelle Smith, in Dunderrow. Juliet Murphy, former Cork LGFA captain fantastic, beat Lisa Hegarty, niece of all-time great, Gretta Cormican, at Newcestown.
The provisional programme for Ból-Fada 2025 at Keady-Tassagh at Easter has been released. Among the big ticket items is a re-match of the 2024 All-Ireland intermediate final between Armagh inter-county goalkeeper, Ethan Rafferty, and Tommy O’Sullivan. Since that fateful day in Castletownkenneigh Rafferty is back to the centre of Kieran McGeeney’s thinking, even if he didn’t win back his place for Armagh’s historic victory in Croke Park. His ability to serve two masters will be truly tested here. O’Sullivan is blossoming into a top ranking senior and will challenge Rafferty in ways he could not have done last Summer.
Colm Rafferty, the holder of three prestigious titles: All-Ireland senior champion, King of the Roads and Ulster senior champion, may be sick of being described as Ethan’s brother. In the bowling world the introductions will go the opposite way if he beats David Murphy in the Joe McVeigh Cup. Murphy, who has already achieved recognition as one of the all-time greats, seems, fitter, sharper and hungrier than he’s been for years. This could be a career defining day for Rafferty and maybe an era defining one if he can springboard off his 2024 successes.
Munster had a clean-sweep over Ulster in the All-Ireland underage team finals at Newcastle, Dublin. There was double joy for the winners as three brothers, Seán, Tadgh and Kieran Hickey and two sisters Lauren and Aoife McCarthy were among the medal winners. At U14 boys, Munster (Fionán Twohig, Eoghan Hickey, Tadgh Hickey, Jack Allen) scored 2,679.9m to beat Ulster (Johnny Campbell, Kielan Fullerton, Jack O’Reilly, Caher Casey) by 149m. The Munster U12 boys (Tommy Coppinger, Jayden Crowley, Kieran Hickey, Seán Hickey) had the biggest win of the day, their score of 2,172.1m gave them a winning margin of 162m over Ulster (Daithí Cahill, Aaron Mackle, Conán Casey, Keigan Fullerton).
Munster U14 girls (Chloë Hubbard, Lauren McCarthy, Layla Fleming, Nicola Hurley) scored 2,045m to beat Ulster (Anna Toal, Connie Mallon, Lucy Lennon, Aoife Cahill) by 156m. The tightest winning margin was for Munster U12 girls (Robyn O’Brien, Lily McDonagh, Aoife McCarthy, Cáit Young) who carded 1,689.2 m to beat Ulster (Eva Mallon, Róise Kiernan, Trudy O’Rourke, Chloë Garvey) by just 41m.
