Irish road bowlers take impressive medal haul home from Dutch moors
Ireland won six of the 12 available medals on the road, which was an exceptional achievement.
The Dutch won four and FKV Germany two. This points to a set of outstanding individuals performance. However, Ireland’s only team gold was the senior men’s team, which indicates that we may not have the strength in depth to maintain our dominance in the national game.
The stunning moors course near Reutum is one of the most well appointed sports venues imaginable.
The Dutch are justifiably proud of it. And Sunday saw it at its best, the grass was short; even on the old course the surface was tricky but fair.
Then we turned at Catharinalaan into a wide, smooth track with a perfect surface that was as fast as a road in the high summer conditions.
The Irish won four individual medals, two silver and two bronze, but this does not tell the full story.
The senior men put in an incredible performance in filling seven of the top nine places to win the team title.
This was against the Dutch who were playing in their national discipline over a course which is revered almost as much as the national flag.
Kelly Mallon was fourth having barely thrown a moors bowl previously. That was an exceptional performance given that the Dutch team was led by Silke Tulk and included a player of Lindsay Leussink’s calibre, who won silver.
While the 2016 celebrations have barely started, now is the best time to plan for 2020.
There are two very obvious places to look in terms of the next European championship, the development of youth panels and greater input from Ulster.
The strides being made at underage level probably needs a slight tweak in the two years leading to the Europeans. Players will need competitive exposure to both Dutch Moors and German Lofting. In the case of Dutch Moors, there is absolutely no reason we should not be matching what we can achieve on the road.
We need to get Ulster more engaged too in order to increase competition for places and give more depth to the squads.
While Ulster’s David Devlin picked up a silver medal on the road, he was not on the moors team.
Where was Odhran Rafferty who gave a stunning performance in last year’s All-Ireland U16 final? What would Thomas Mackle have done on that brilliant moors course on Sunday? A player of Kelly Mallon’s talent should have been training with a moors bowl for months.
Some top players from both Ulster and Munster were missing from the senior squads.
Those players might not have changed the senior men’s road result, given that they won the team event and both the gold and silver individual medals.
Where they would make a significant impact is in allowing for rotation within the squad, covering for injury and giving options if a player is off form FKV Germany had virtually three distinct senior men’s teams.
While there is a huge cost in bringing a squad of that scale to Schleswig-Holstein in four years, some moves should be made to bring at least some players that could devote their primary focus to one or even two disciplines.
The entire Irish squads were out all day for three successive days in temperatures well into the high 20s.
That must have sapped them of energy for Sunday’s moors championship. Would a tiny bit more zip have catapulted James O’Donovan or Eoin Healy from silver to gold?
The Ulster and Munster championships continued at slightly lower key over the weekend too.
Bryan O’Reilly easily defeated his cousin, Paul O’Reilly, last year’s All-Ireland intermediate champion, at Tullysaran in the Ulster senior championship.
He was a bowl in front after three and raised a second at Mary Ann’s pub and eased home.
Wayne Kingston beat Mick Hurley in the last shot in the East Cork – Waterford Junior A championship at Ballincurrig.
They were level for the first few shots, but Kingston moved clear to the creamery. He played his bowl there too low on the left.
Hurley seized that opportunity to take a good lead in the shots to Heaphy’s. He made a mistake with his next, which left them level to the big corner.
Kingston got the better of the shots up the short straight, but Hurley cut the odds to the sycamores. He then got a brilliant bowl to the elbow, which Kingston missed well.
Kingston levelled again with a great bowl to the last bend. Neither player got a good last shot, but Kingston just edged it.
Leo Hegarty beat Sam Kingston in the last shot of a very exciting East Cork–Waterford Veteran (Novice) final at the same venue.
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