Road to ruin: West Cork stand-off raises stakes in bid to save road bowling

Thomas Mackle essentially pulled the handbrake on serious punters making it their business to take over laying the odds

Thomas Mackle (centre) in action during the Men's Senior All-Ireland Road Bowling final at Ballincurrig, Co Cork, last year. Mackle has addressed in a very public way what everyone else around the game has been talking about. He has taken a stand and refused to be commodified for others to make money off. Picture: Dan Linehan

It’s as native as boiled bacon and cabbage, as Cork as tripe and drisheen, a sporting tradition necklaced around the country’s rural roads and boreens from Lyre near Clonakilty to Keady in Armagh and Eglish in Tyrone.

Legends have been shaped around the acute bends and cambers on the roads as vehicular traffic and livestock dutifully make way and pause for the folk heroes of road bowling.