Road bowling: Mackle impresses as trio eye King of the Roads semis

Thomas Mackle in action. Pic: Dan Linehan

Aidan Murphy, Gene McVeigh and Thomas Mackle are all in line for semi-final places in King of the Roads after impressive wins at Ballincurrig last weekend.

Mackle was best overall of the three scores, opening the last corner in 14 shots for a bowl of odds win over James O’Donovan.

Two good opening shots had O’Donovan leading at Moore’s gate, but a mistake with his third derailed him. Mackle stormed to the no-play line in five to go almost a bowl in front, which he raised with a massive eighth bowl to light at Leahy’s. 

They went out the big corner on ten and 11. O’Donovan then played a sensational bowl to light, but Mackle beat it by a metre. Mackle scorched out the last bend in three more, never giving O’Donovan a realistic chance to close the gap.

Murphy led all the way against Gary Daly. He put down a marker with a massive third shot into the creamery green. He followed with another monster bowl towards the pony’s gate. He beat the no-play line next to go a full shot clear.

He was at Leahy’s in three more massive bowls to push almost two clear. He might have won by two had he not played his bowl from the big corner too tight right. That gave Daly renewed hope, but Murphy conceded little else.

McVeigh led all the way too against Páidín Stokes. He opened with a sensational bowl. But for a few errors he might have matched Mackle’ bowling. Stokes mounted a late rally with two huge bowls from the top of the short straight. McVeigh rose to that challenge magnificently in a storming finish.

Shannonvale hosted a highly successful cancer research benefit weekend, with a total of ten scores.

In the feature Paul Buckley beat Wayne Parkes in the last shot. Buckley was throwing his odds facing the finish, but missed the line. This handed Parkes a late lifeline, but he needed a huge bowl. He played his bowl well, but it whipped in right, well shy of his objective.

Johnny O’Driscoll beat Michéal Desmond in the last score, compensating for having lost earlier in the series to Denis Wilmot. Liam Murphy got the better of the emerging stars when he beat David Hegarty in the last shot. 

Hegarty looked to be in control of that one when he led by a bowl coming into the last quarter, but Murphy finished well to snatch it.

Eoin Hurley had a dramatic last-shot win over Tommy O’Donoghue in the Munster novice I final at Ballinacurra. That win puts him on the ticket for next weekend’s All-Ireland final series at Westport, which includes champions from a spread of eight Irish counties, across all four provinces, three US states and London. 

The early exchanges pointed to a likely win for O’Donoghue. He had commanding odds at Brinny cross. He increased his lead by making the church with his next one after Hurley’s bowl through the cross went right.

A great rub off the church wall for his next bowl kept Hurley in contention. O’Donoghue beat that well. In the next exchange Hurley’s bowl got a nice cannon again, but O’Donoghue beat it by 100m. Neither player got the perfect following shots. Hurley then played a super bowl past Perrott’s to win a 40m lead.

O’Donoghue cut that to a metre with his next bowl to the GAA field. A rub helped Hurley increase the odds again past Innishannon cross. A big bowl to the novice line from O’Donoghue kept him in touch.

Hurley tightened his grip with another big bowl to the last bend to hold a 70m lead. O’Donoghue cut that to 50m with his second last. He then beat the line, against all expectation, with a massive last bowl. Hurley’s reply was right of the play, but it stayed the course and beat the tip.

At Newcestown, Don O’Driscoll beat Robert Coleman in the novice II final to fill the final place on the Munster team. He opened with a brilliant bowl to light, which Coleman followed. O’Driscoll pushed clear with a big second throw, which Coleman beat by just 12m in three.

Coleman then beat big third and fourth shots from O’Driscoll past the garage. O’Driscoll raised the bowl with his fifth to Kingston’s. Coleman was right of the sop with his seventh bowl and he was now almost two bowls adrift. He did well to bring it back to a bowl at O’Callaghan’s. 

O’Driscoll sealed his All-Ireland spot with a sensational bowl past the line.