Coppinger victory shows healthy state of sport

THE first two All-Ireland series of 2010 have presented a positive picture about the state of road bowling.

A proactive youth policy has begun to show results.

Martin Coppinger’s senior success best underlines that progress. He has the ability, physical presence and a newfound consistency that could see him at the business end of the championship for a long time.

Brothers, David and Aidan Murphy have also shown impressive form. Aidan won a world title in May while David won the Jerry Desmond Cup last week.

Eamon Bowen Jnr. and James O’Donovan are another pair to the fore in Munster. O’Donovan went from intermediate finalist in 2009 to senior finalist in 2010 when he was beaten by Coppinger.

Bowen won the World Moors title, but bowed out in a bloodless defeat when he was late for his meeting with Coppinger in the Munster quarter-final. He is certain to redouble his efforts in 2011 and may even have a chance to face Coppinger in the King of the Roads.

This Munster senior championship was the most competitive for some time and looks set to remain so for the foreseeable future as all of the players mentioned here are in the early stages of their careers.

In Ulster the situation does not look as rosy. Eddie Carr is the standout player there, but there are no likely candidates set to fill the massive void left by Michael Toal after the holder of 10 All-Ireland senior crowns called a premature end to his career because of a chronic elbow injury.

Killian Kingston’s All-Ireland Junior A win this weekend is another reason why Munster bowling enters a period of optimism. The Presentation College student will not sit his Leaving Cert until next year and is already the holder of one of the most prestigious titles in adult bowling.

What was most impressive about Kingston’s win was the manner of victory. His opponent Fergal Donnelly produced a measured and determined challenge — indeed he would have been a bowl ahead of Sunday’s intermediate finalists.

For the first half of the score, he completely dominated every aspect of this score. Kingston’s character was well tested in front of a partisan home crowd. Then he delivered three of the most amazing bowls seen in this grade.

The first of these was over McGeown’s Height to McCann’s. It was two decent shots collapsed into one extraordinary bowl. He was at the carnival gates with his next and then produced an incredible effort to McKee’s wall.

There was no return for Donnelly after that.

Kingston will be up to intermediate in 2011, a grade populated by quality young players like Seamus Sexton, Gary Daly, and David Hubbard. In an exam year that championship may prove a bridge too far, but there is little doubt that Kingston is a huge name for the future.

There’s plenty of other reasons to be confident too if we look at the other underage All-Ireland contestants. Sunday’s U12 final was a really amazing contest, if Evan Murphy and David Devlin are mentored properly over the next five or six years they look like real prospects. Likewise with Colm Rafferty and Damien O’Gorman from the U14 final and Ethan Rafferty and John O’Sullivan from last month’s U16 final.