The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Drive it on boy’... Cork bowlers storm the roads of West Kerry
DRIVE it on boy! Drive it out of sight! Road bowling has a vocabulary of its own and it was to be heard on the road between Muiríoch and Gallarus on Saturday as a clatter of Cork men competed in the West Kerry Road Bowling Tournament.
The phrase ‘drive it out of sight’ was an enthusiastic exhortation to competitors to throw the near two pound weight iron ball (bowl) so far that it’d disappear over the far horizon. Often enough though, the bowl would end up bouncing into the ditch and the Cork men blamed this on no lack of skill on their part, but on the size of the stone chips used in Kerry roads.
“We like a nice, smooth surface for bowling. But there’s awful big chips on the roads around here and they throw the bowl off course,” explained Frank Kiely from Macroom.
So do they have smaller chips on the roads of Cork? “Ah, way smaller boy, way smaller – although we do have our fair share of potholes as well.”
Frank, had good reason to take the road conditions seriously, especially given the hefty betting involved. In road bowling bets aren’t placed with bookies; instead, the supporters of one competitor put up a stake which the opponent is expected to match. In one of the two scores that Frank won on the day, the total stake amounted to €5,000, which was shared out among the winning side after 10 per cent was taken to pay betting tax and another five per cent was put aside for the tournament organisers.
Organised by Muiris Ó Fiannachta from Ventry, along with his friend Harry Jennings from Clonakilty,this year’s tournament raised almost €1,000 for the Dingle Coast and Cliff Rescue Team, with a lesser amount going to the new páirc caide na Gaeltachta. In return, Coast and Cliff members Michael Brosnan and Tadhg Leahy helped out on the day and found themselves assigned to an unlikely search and rescue mission – retrieving lost bowls from the ditches.
The annual tournament, which had been deferred from last October because of the weather, attracted about 60 Cork men across the County Bounds and many of them stayed overnight after Saturday’s tournament to enjoy the hospitality of TP’s pub in Baile na nGall where the prizegiving was held, and the diverse attractions of West Kerry.
Muiris said he was very happy overall with the tournament and would like to see it extended to a two-day event in the future – and hopefully with more locals taking an interest.