Difficult choices must be made if road bowling is to thrive

Bowling may have to think very carefully about leaving behind a good source of income. Not a bet was struck at the European Championships weekend, yet every bowler in green exerted every muscle and sinew for themselves, the team, the sport and their country. Greatness is about values rather than monetary value.

A view from behind a bowler. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Tom Honan

Urban legend has it that when asked, “How much money is enough?, John D. Rockefeller, quipped “Just a little bit more”. What he definitely did say though was “Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” 

Herein lies one of sports great challenges.

After a truly great European Championships, that conundrum will be tossing around the minds of bowling people. What good things must be left behind, to liberate the greatness of the sport.

Bowling may have to think very carefully about leaving behind a good source of income. Not a bet was struck at the weekend, yet every bowler in green exerted every muscle and sinew for themselves, the team, the sport and their country. Greatness is about values rather than monetary value.

Bowling left parochialism behind a long time ago. That created space to see greatness in others and to be inspired by them. Italian, Michele Ugoccioni, got sustained applause even though he finished ninth, but people saw the magnitude of him breaking the 1,900m mark. How the Irish dealt with the late surge of Ralf Look, applauding his shots, even when they knew it threatened Séamus Sexton’s grip on gold and James O’Donovan’s on bronze.

When it was done there was a breaking of the flood gates, but the Germans, Dutch and Italians congratulated Sexton too. On Saturday morning the Dutch voted against a motion that might have given their player a gold medal. Bowlers sincerely cross national dividing lines for the greater good, maybe it’s because they share a common bond in the world of threatened traditional games.

Greatness abounded in the arena of play. Rachel Kingston changed her own history and rose to new heights in winning the under-18 road gold medal. She was the first Irish person to win on the weekend. That took a lot of self-confidence, it needed overcoming some early challenges and then putting in a pristine finish.

Darragh Dempsey blotted out a persistent injury that haunted him through the weekend to put in a performance of historic magnitude. If he can progress from here, he could be winning a senior gold in two years in the Netherlands.

David Murphy, put valour ahead of strategy by taking to the Moors on Friday. Rockefeller, was a great believer in enthusiasm too. Isn’t there something extraordinary about Murphy’s character that he just wanted to throw the bowl on Friday no matter the cost. On Sunday he not only went onto the road, but was actually in the frame for gold at one point. He did a greater thing than I saw beforehand in my naïve pragmatism.

Séamus Sexton, with his brother Edmund on the sop, did a greater thing to honour the memory of their late father than is granted to most families. Perseverance, patience and preparation played a bigger part in that win than a very modest Séamus Sexton would ever admit.

Greatness is in the performance not in the medal. Ireland’s Hannah Sexton, reflecting on her own performance, captured it perfectly: ‘I was done, there was not another ounce in me’. 

Anke Klöpper beat her two greatest rivals Silke Tulk and Kelly Mallon, a huge win even if she got a silver medal. More than any medal, Lindsay Leussink was basking in the performance of her life on the game’s biggest stage.

Greatness also lies in narrow margins, like the 30 cm that separated Dutch girls Britt Rolink and Sophie Koebrugge on the road. The colour of the medal was less important than who would play on the big stage in September’s King & Queen of the Roads. Just 11m denied Tommy O’Sullivan gold in the Moors, just over one metre per shot. But he, Darragh Dempsey and Jamie Kelleher who filled the next two places, combined for one of the great team performances of the weekend.

Martin Coppinger won bronze on the Moors, when he might have won gold, but for a bizarre refereeing decision. He was out the next two days with even more fervour. Greatness was certainly achieved last weekend. There is more greatness ahead for bowling, but it may have to make some hard choices on the familiar ‘goods’ to leave behind.