Five-star Buckley takes King of the Roads title
An equally impressive Silke Tulk stormed past the line in 14 shots to win the Global Catering Queen of the Roads against Carmel Ryan. Earlier David Devlin and Mairéad O’Driscoll gave Ireland its first Maas Engineering Youth International Triple Crown. PJ Cooney repeated his brilliant form of Friday to beat James Oliver in the Jim O’Dricoll Cup final.
Buckley was brilliant in King of the Roads. The lead changed hands with each of the first four shots, with Murphy taking the first and Buckley the fourth with a brilliant bowl to the creamery. He was past the no-play line in two more, which gave him a big advantage when Murphy missed with his sixth. He followed with a massive bowl to O’Riordan’s, which put him almost a bowl in front. The crowing shot though was his next, razor tight to the right bend that ran to the top of the long straight to increase his lead to almost two bowls. He opened the big corner after Murphy unluckily missed when his 12th was taken off the road by a pothole.
He now was two clear and victory was never in doubt. In the semi-final he got a sterner test from Bryan O’Reilly and Germany’s Matthias Rahmann. He looked to have the hard work done till O’Reilly played a huge second last shot towards the line. Buckley kept his nerve and played a perfect last bowl to the end of the green, O’Reilly was slightly right with his reply and missed the tip. Rahmann was in the frame till the closing stages.
Murphy beat Harold Dolleman by almost two bowls. Dolleman controlled the score to the creamery. Murphy made the no-play line with a massive sixth and when Dolleman missed from an easier position the pendulum swung. A super shot up the long straight put Murphy almost two clear following two poor shots from Dolleman. He kept the lead close to two to the finish.
In the Queen of the Roads Silke Tulk was at the sycamores in two and a bowl in front. She was on top of the short straight in four and then followed Ryan’s great shot to the big corner. Ryan closed the gap in the next two to the long straight. She stayed in contention till Tulk got a massive bowl to Hegarty’s to go over a bowl in front. Ryan dug deep over the next few shots, but Tulk beat everything. She closed with two incredible bowls from the creamery, the first to sight at Geary’s and the second way past the finish line.
David Devlin and Mairéad O’Driscoll gave a mature performance in the Triple Crown. The Dutch pair Jochem Wennink and Manon Zanderink started well, but the German team of Michael Mülder and Maren Christoffer never got going. The Dutch were in control till O’Driscoll followed a great bowl to the big corner.
The Dutch went clear again, but Irish closed the gap with two great bowls to O’Riordan’s. Devlin got a huge bowl past Hegarty’s and when Jochem Wennink made a mistake at the top of the creamery straight the Irish were back in control. They pushed clear and closed with three brilliant shots past the line.
PJ Cooney beat James Oliver by a bowl in the Jim O’Driscoll Cup final. They were locked together after six to the no-play line. Cooney then got a great bowl from the line to raise almost a bowl and he had it in full at the top of the long straight. He went almost two clear at the big corner and was cruising till he made a mistake with his shot to the sycamores. He steadied things with a great bowl from there and won by a bowl.
