Road bowling: Connolly ends Murphy's run in Hancy Hubbard Cup showdown

After a fast start, he led all the way to an emphatic win.

Organiser Eileen Gobnait Ní Lionáird in action during the all-Gobnait road bowling event in Ballyvourney, part of the St Gobnait Festival. Picture Chani Anderson

Ger Connolly brought a decisive end to John-Anthony Murphy’s recent run of success, in the Hancy Hubbard Cup at Béal na Marbh.

He started brilliantly and led all the way to an emphatic win. Murphy opened with a big bowl, but Connolly beat it by 30m. Murphy made light with a good second one and followed with two more big shots up the hill to bring the lead back to just five metres. This was as close as he got.

Connolly took complete control of the score with two huge bowls from there. The first one raised a bowl and the second one increased his odds at the big tree. He was at the start of the straight in eight. He then played a huge bowl towards the wood to take his lead to two bowls. He dominated the rest of the score.

Mike Quilligan beat John O’Donoghue Snr in the Munster Zone A junior A championship at Ballyhooly.

He had almost a bowl of odds after two big opening shots to light. He raised the bowl with his good third throw from the bend. O’Donoghue knocked the bowl with a fine sixth shot past the double bends. They contested the bowl of odds until Quilligan played a very short 10th bowl to leave just 30m between them O’Donoghue then played a great bowl towards the last bend to win his only lead. Quilligan edged the next exchange and gained ground in the closing shots to win comfortably in the last throw.

Donal Riordan finished strongly to beat Edmund Sexton in the Jasper Coleman Cup at Shannonvale. The lead see-sawed throughout.

Riordan had a nice lead after three, but Sexton was a shot clear at the quarry. Sexton’s advantage was wiped out when he had a dead bowl at Demond’s. He managed to push a bowl clear again to the novice line. Riordan clawed back into it with huge second last throw and won the last exchange.

One of the Premier Junior contenders, Darragh Dempsey, had a comprehensive two bowls of odds win against the in-form David Hegarty at Caheragh. He was just five metres fore after four each to the soccer pitch. He increased that to 25m at the lawn. He gained total dominance between there and Shelly’s where he had two bowls of odds.

Denis Wilmot bounced back from his recent defeat at Ballinacurra to beat Michéal Desmond at the same venue. He started well, beating Brinny cross in three and he was past the gas line in three more, where he had a bowl of odds He held the bowl in the next three to the GAA field. Desmond knocked the bowl in the next exchange to Innishannon cross. Wilmot was still close to a bowl in front at the junior C line, but Desmond closed the gap to the line.

Colm Crowley beat Michéal O’Sullivan in the last shot of the Marsh Road semi-final. O’Sullivan raced over a bowl clear after seven to the quarry hill. He held the bowl to the steps in 13 and onto Ballyhilty corner in four more. He lost all his odds through two short bowls and Crowley seized the opening to win the lead. He won the last exchange from 10m fore bowl.

Willie O’Donnell beat Dermot McCarthy in the last shot at Whitechurch. He led by close to a bowl at one point.

The group stages of the new Premier Junior grade, aimed at the top nine emerging young male players, has been made. In group one are Shane Crowley, Michael O’Donoghue and Cillian Kelleher; group two is Anthony Crowley, Darragh Dempsey and Liam Murphy; in group three are Brian O’Driscoll, John O’Donoghue and Cathal Creedon.

The annual Convention of Ból-Chumann na hÉireann on February 18 will consider seven rule changes. One proposed by Cork City aims at tightening up the conventions around concession of scores. It has been a long tradition that a player can concede by shaking hands with their opponent, ‘hands shaken’ is often used to signify that the contest is over.

In recent times there have been some controversies around whether or not the hand-shake is actually conclusive. In some cases players have a change of mind and insist on resuming. The Cork City proposal would make the process clearer and final, with no possibility of the contest being resumed.

An Ghaeltacht is proposing the elimination of all practice shots in the vicinity of the start line for Munster and All-Ireland championships on health and safety grounds.

Among the other motions is one to introduce mediation when disputes are not satisfactorily resolved within the association. Other notable proposals include one to introduce tighter regulation of benefit events and one for the inclusion of a novice women’s championship.