O’Donovan makes Bauravilla finish in 16 throws
He opened with two good shots to the cross, putting himalmost a bowl clear after Murphy played both his first two to the right. He kept up the momentum towards the netting and was peeping sight at the rock in seven where his lead was almost two bowls. He followed with a big shot to Deasy’s to push his lead to two bowls and 30m.
Murphy rallied with a great bowl to sight at the bridge. O’Donovan played his bowl to the left but rubbed to bare sight. He made O’Sullivan’s with his next. Murphy hit back with a bowl over the height to the lag in the road to cut the lead to less than a bowl.
O’Donovan regained the bowl of odds with his next shot. Murphy knocked it again with a good follow-up bowl and held the lead just under a bowl with his next two throws. O’Donovan then played a massive bowl to sealed his win.
PJ Cooney pipped Michael Bohane in the semi-final of the Jim O’Driscoll Cup at Ballincurrig. Bohane shaded the opening shots and increased his lead with a good second past Moore’s gate. He consolidated that lead with a good third to Geary’s. Cooney got a good fourth to the middle of the green, which Bohane beat well but his bowl hit a pillar at the creamery. Bohane kept a good lead with his fifth but it missed the no-play line. Cooney then missed the line with his sixth to leave a shot between them.
Bohane was a full bowl in front after the shots to sight at O’Riordan’s. Cooney was tight with his next but it ran nicely towards the top of the straight. Bohane caught the right twice with his next two to lose the lead. Cooney was just fore after another two to the start of the big corner.
Bohane lofted his next to sight. Cooney shaved the bend with his and it went to the top of the short straight which put him almost a bowl in front. Bohane got the better of the shots to the sycamores and made sight in two more to edge back into the score. Bohane’s last veered right before the line, it rubbed but didn’t go far into the green. Cooney’s last went right too, but it brushed and just beat the tip.
DD Carroll bowled very impressively in his two bowls of odds win over James O’Driscoll in the Munster Vintage B final at Bantry. O’Driscoll took the first tip with a big opener. Carroll played a good second to win the lead. O’Driscoll stayed in the frame by making sight at the first bend in four. Carroll got a nice rub with his reply there to hold a 30m advantage. O’Driscoll followed with a great bowl on the straight, but Carroll beat it by 40m.
O’Driscoll was too tight on the right with his next and Carroll hit back with a super shot to raise almost a bowl of odds. He raised the bowl with his next to sight. He pushed almost two clear with a great bowl to the following bend. With another great bowl from there he raised a second bowl.
Emma Fitzpatrick secured her place in the Global Catering Queen of the Roads semi-final when she beat Megan Collins by a bowl in the semi-final of the Gretta Cormican Cup at Timoleague. She opened with a big shot which settled well and Collins missed that tip by 50m. Collins played a good second bowl, but it broke off the play. Fitzpatrick powered ahead to raise a bowl after five and she increased her odds to almost two. Collins fought back strongly and knocked the bowl. But Fitzpatrick kept control and won by a bowl when Collins missed her big last shot.
Catriona O’Farrell-Kidney moved a step closer to Queen of the Roads too when she beat Catriona Murphy by two bowls at Jagoes Mills.
She opened the first bend in three to raise almost a bowl. She followed with four exceptional bowls to the dump where she had a full bowl of odds after seven sensational shots. Her form dipped to the railway, but Murphy made no real gains.
O’Farrell-Kidney raised her game again to push her odds to two bowls at the power-station and held that comfortably to the line. She now plays Munster intermediate champion Claire O’Sullivan for the last place in the Queen of the Roads semi-finals.
Johnny Murphy beat Thomas Boyle in the last shot at Grenagh. He was a bowl in front at the halfway, but he got two short bowls before Boula lane and Boyle levelled. Murphy closed with three good bowls past the line, with Boyle just missing it in three.
Vincent Kiely wiped out a bowl of odds deficit to beat Johnny’s brother Denis by a bowl in the return. Murphy raised a bowl after four and held it till his seventh. He bowled poorly to the no-play line and Kiely levelled. Kiely easily won the last exchange with a great bowl.
