Women’s bowling elevated to new plane
Carmel Ryan won what may be the best women’s score ever, but in defeat Silke Tulk enhanced her reputation too.
Ryan and Tulk are both current European champions, so the standard of the bowling should not have been a surprise. What was astonishing though was the latter half of this contest. Each one threw bowls that would have killed another opponent. The mental exhaustion of both players at the line was testimony to the scale of the physical and psychology battle this became.
Ryan led at all but two tips, but this should not give the impression that she ever had a chance to relax. She won the first two shots comfortably as Tulk took a while to settle. She might have pushed further clear but missed light at the sycamores with her third. Tulk hit her with a great bowl to the muddy gap and from there to the line this was a score for the ages.
Ryan gained momentum two shots later when she got better light at the big corner. But Tulk then played a massive bowl onto the long straight to win her first lead. Ryan gained traction again with her next only to see Tulk drive another massive bowl to O’Riordan’s. They both got brilliant bowls to light at Hegarty’s.
Tulk lofted her next smartly and made the pony gate, a shot that any senior man would be proud of. What a body blow it must have been to see Ryan reply with an even bigger bowl that went well onto the creamery straight. Tulk looked buried. The Dutch woman responded with an absolute miler that went past the creamery. That would certainly crack Ryan. No she hit back with bowl of incredible character to miss the tip by just a few metres.
At that point they both looked out on their feet. Ryan somehow found the resolve and sheer audacity to play her next bowl several degrees south of the sop. It was a bullet. It cut the last bend and went well towards the finish. Everything was now on the line, but Tulk showed the guts of a champion and got her bowl onto the straight too. Her last bowl drifted right just before the line, while Ryan got hers tight on the left for perhaps the most famous win in women’s bowling.
Saturday’s magnificent Hurley’s of Midleton King of the Roads semi-final between Aidan Murphy, Martin Coppinger and Germany’s Ralf Look was, till the Queen of the Roads final, the score of the weekend.
This turned into a serious heavyweight encounter between Murphy and Coppinger, with Look not able to keep in touch. They both beat the line in 15. It went to a last shot and a quirk of fate that saw Coppinger’s last bowl hit the hitch of a van parked high on the green, may have been decisive. Murphy had produced a big last bowl, after his much shorter first attempt had been called. We will never know definitively if Coppinger’s bowl would have passed it.
Edmond Sexton had chances to beat Murphy on Sunday. Given the demands of Saturday’s score, Murphy was not as consistent. He still produced the longest first shot of the weekend and a record bowl through the no-play line. Sexton levelled at the top of the long straight, but played a poor next shot. That robbed him of vital metres at the big corner, which may have contributed to his failure to cover the short straight, the shot that ultimately decided the final.
Martin Toal was incredibly unlucky in his semi-final against Sexton and Jerry Dekker. His perfect fifth shot missed the no-play line by less than a metre and he was equally unlucky with his bowl to the big corner.
On Friday Éamon Bowen Snr gave a master class on the finer points of bowling in the first half of his Jim O’Driscoll Cup tie with Killian Kingston and William O’Driscoll. His three up to the no-play line were all finesse and economy of effort, two or three steps and a perfect delivery. He then got the shot of the festival off the no-play line and looked to be cruising at Leahy’s. A narrow miss to the big corner and trying to slice the salami too thinly with his next around the bend cost him.
Kingston opened his shoulders after that and closed out the score with power and confidence. He met a very different challenge in Sunday’s overall final. Here Cathal Toal was all fire and drive, reminiscent of his famous uncle Harry’s early years. Right from the off he was on the offensive and scorched past the line in 15.
