THE first tournament final of 2024 was played out at Jagoe’s Mills, with the Kenneth Murphy Memorial Cup was up for grabs when Mark Coleman, Dunderrow, and Paul O’Donoghue, Riverstick, took issue for a €2,400 total stake.
A very even contest had little separating the tips to the half-way point. O’Donoghue had held a slender lead after four to the ‘kerbing’ before Coleman edged in front by five metres at ‘Lawton’s’. The break came when the Dunderrow man unleashed a cracking tenth past the old railway entrance. That fine effort put him a bowl up and, when he followed with a powerful 11th to the ‘power station’, he had cushion enough to take the winner’s prize.
In the new Champy Deasy Cup at Grange, Noel O’Donovan defeated Denis Wilmot by a bowl of odds for €9,500. O’Donovan rose his winning odds in the shots around ‘Con Hegarty’s’ and held his lead to the finish in a score of top-class bowling. Here too, Kevin Coughlan scored a two-bowl victory over county novice C champion, David Desmond, for a €2,900 total.
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Bantry had a fundraising day on the ‘creamery road’ and here, Adrian Buttimer delivered the performance of the day defeating Ger Connolly by a bowl for €3,600. Buttimer first five were of record-breaking proportions for the road. At Ballinacurra, Upton, on Saturday, Darren Oliver defeated David Hubbard, last shot, for €4,400. Also here, Timmie Murphy defeated Jim Coffey, one bowl, for €3,500; Stephen Murphy defeated Tommy Maloney, last shot, for €500 and Paul Kelleher defeated Ronan Hoey for €700.
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Almost unbelievably the 2024 championship season, which will run to September 8th, has begun. West Cork are first underway with two eliminators at The Clubhouse and Ballinacarriga. At the former, Bantry’s Garoid Cronin and Drinagh’s Trevor Jagoe engaged in a novice C first rounder that was in the melting pot to the last shots. Cronin prevailed in that decisive exchange. Just over the road at Ballinacarriga in Novice D, John Murray, Ardcahan, won his clash with Dunmanway’s Eoin O’Sullivan. It was a tight contest too for much of the way before Murray’s strong finish decided it. In the Gaeltacht division at Baile Bhuirne, a 2023 novice E semi-final saw Jack Lynch defeat Eanna Dineen, last shot, for €1,100. Jack plays Sam Pickering in the final.
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Bowling has received a new year boost with the news of Emma Hurley’s selection as West Cork Sports Star Paudie Palmer Youth Award winner for 2023. Along with her inclusion in West Cork’s Kennedy Cup team, Emma’s All-Ireland U16 championship success impressed the judges. The Drinagh teenager will receive her Award at The Celtic Ross Hotel on January 27th.
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There was sadness in the bowling world at the untimely passing of Pakie O’Regan, Togher Cross. Father of county junior B champion Noel, Pakie was a lifelong follower of the game and, coming from a great bowling heartland, enjoyed the triumphs of the greats of yesteryear from that locality among them, Dermot O’Sullivan and Billy Hurley.
Although in the background during Noel’s magnificent run to county honours, Pakie was a calming and helpful presence in the heat of many high-octane battles. Quietly spoken he was held in high regard by all whom he encountered on the countless bowling roads he visited throughout the county. His many friends from the bowing fraternity formed a guard of honour as he made his final journey to St. Finbarr’s Cemetery, Dunmanway, on Wednesday last. Ból Chumann extends its sympathies to Zena, to Marion, Noel, Sharon and Cathal and extended families.
Ból Chumann also regrets the passing of Tadhgie Drinan, St Finbarr’s GAA Club. Tadhgie was a helpful and accommodating facilitator for the many Association meetings held at St Finbarr’s Pavilion. Rest in Peace. The bowling world also remembers Timmy Harrington, Timoleague, who went to his reward recently. Timmy played and won many scores in the Timoleague-Butlerstown locality and will be sadly missed.
