Mackle retains bowling crown after Murphy succumbs to injury 

Ballincurrig saw the shortest decider in the history of the premier grade.

Thomas Mackle ( Armagh ) in action during the Mens Senior All-Ireland Road Bowling final at Ballincurrig, Co Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

Thomas Mackle retained his All-Ireland senior bowling title at Ballincurrig in what became the shortest decider in the history of the premier grade when his opponent, David Murphy, had to concede due to injury after just four shots.

Mackle was trying to navigate a tightrope between elation and disappointment. The final was over before it had even left the station. All that psychological energy, that physical preparation he built up over the past few months still pent-up and barely called on. He had done what was asked of him in this truncated final. He had joined an elite club of players who retained the All-Ireland title, but he was denied something that would have franked his stature – victory over a fully fit and charged David Murphy.

He has the satisfaction of performing as a championship should. He opened with a super bowl to light, beating Murphy’s opening shot by 20m. Despite being in visible discomfort before the off, Murphy managed to get a first shot away that was on a par with the upper echelons of opening All-Ireland final shots. His second was a good one too, calling on all his guile, upper body strength and hand technique to play a bowl beyond the capacity of most fully fit mortals. Mackle’s reply as a searing bowl that clipped the left and careered well past Moore’s gate.

Murphy managed a decent third one to the start of the green. Mackle’s reply raced into the middle of the green, which was on track for a winning performance. Murphy played one more, but the situation was now desperate, pain overcame valour and he conceded.

Mackle’s name will go on the Hughie Traynor Cup opposite 2023, but he was deflated at how it transpired, “I was feeling so good all week, I really wanted this to go all the way”. 

He was primed and ready, delivered three super opening shots, became the third Ulster player to retain the senior title, and won the shortest final on record. For Murphy it was a serious blow, just as he had rediscovered both the form and fitness that had propelled him to the top of the bowling world another injury robbed him a chance to test himself again against the best.

Overall Ulster will leave the first series at Ballincurrig in a slightly happier place than Munster. Aoife Trainor was brilliant in her intermediate final win, young Jake Cullen came of age in his winning of the Junior B title and Jack O’Reilly showed serious potential in his U12 Boys win. There was silver in the lining for Munster too. Both Emma Hurley and John O’Donoghue were impressive winners of the two U16 finals. Philip O’Donovan opened his second career after a 13-year lay-off with a polished win in the Veteran (Over-50) final.

Jake Cullen, barely out of underage, gave a mature, resilient and speedy show in his win over Noel O’Regan in the Junior B final. Right from the off he was in the zone against a player who had excelled in the Munster final over the same road. He beat a big opening bowl from O’Regan and was never led, though O’Regan came very close after his brilliant seventh. Cullen raced into the green in three super throws, which put him almost a bowl in front after O’Regan misplayed his fourth.

He beat the no-play line in six. He looked to be getting control till O’Regan played an absolute gem of a seventh bowl to Heaphy’s to cut the lead to less than a metre. Cullen did better in the next exchange. He pushed clear up the long straight and raised a bowl after 11 towards the big corner. O’Regan then asked him the first of two score-defining questions. Off identical tips at the big corner, O’Regan made light at the top of the short straight with a brilliant bowl. Cullen beat it to hold his bowl of odds.

O’Regan followed with another good one past Din Tough’s, but Cullen came close. Then Cullen raised the ante with a sensational bowl past the serpent. This catapulted him well over a bowl in front and firmly sealed his win.

Aoife Trainor showed a lot of guts, in the second half to get clear of Munster’s Ciara Buckley in the Intermediate women’s final, having lost two previous finals. Each of the other four winners gave five-star performances in a weekend that seemed to be heading for a crescendo on Sunday afternoon, but the bumper attendance was denied the biggest show of all.