Bowling News - September 2024
September is the month when competitions are decided. To put it another way, "It's showtime"!
The delayed finals of this year's Dun Laoghaire Champion of Champions was played on the second Sunday of September. The host club was unfortunate to lose both men's and women's finals. In the ladies' match Vivienne Beattie went down to Noeleen Kelly of Crumlin whilst Anto Grey lost to Kevin Marshall of Clontarf.
The Summer leagues finished in September. Bray, under Captain Dave McMahon, came a very respectable fifth in the Premier Division, with eight wins, eight losses and no draws. One notable result was when they beat CYM 'A' 6-1 in Bray. Despite this, CYM won the league by a slender two points to wrest the crown back from arch-rivals, Crumlin. In Saturday Division 1 Bray (Captain Brendan Duffy) struggled all season but managed to climb free of the trapdoor in the end. Bray registered six wins but twelve losses. This league was once again easily won by Crumlin who lost only a single match all season. Our other Saturday team was in the Tormey Cup. Led by Ger Minogue they finished second to Blackrock with ten wins and eight losses.
As far as national championships went the month was a good one for a certain club in Dublin 12.
The IWBA National Championships were hosted this year by the ILB at CYM, the club of the IWBA president Jacqui Byrne. Crumlin's Sarah Kelly won the singles competition for the ILB and was also named IWBA Bowler of the Year. Together with mum, Noeleen, she also won the pairs trophy. Isobel Ruby Nolan of Blackrock won the under-18s singles. At the IBA National Championships in Bangor, Co Down, Robbie Maher, Eamonn Carruth, Richie Leonard and Shane Leonard from Crumlin picked up the IBA Fours title. This achievement ended a long drought for the ILB in terms of national titles.
ILB League success did come to Bray via Will McKeon's Monday Division 1 side who finished on top to take the Cooper Cup. This up-and-coming group achieved their success through 14 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. The club had won this league just once before. In fact it was the first league that Bray ever won, in 1968, three years after the club's foundation. Back then it was known as the Junior League. Novice captain Philip Bredin's team, in Monday Division 2, finished tenth, with six wins and sixteen losses. This league was won by North Kildare who pipped Ierne.
Ireland secured 2 gold and 1 bronze at the European Championships at Northfield Complex, Ayr. Playing against Israel, Ryan McElroy, Shane Leonard (Crumlin) and Mark Wilson battled hard to secure the bronze medal with a 3 shot win. Though Ireland did not win any of the competitions at the Under-25 British Isles series held at Belmont BC, Belfast, the squad did have four representatives from the republic: Colum O'Brien (CYM), Amy Carruth (Crumlin), Isabel Larrigan (Crumlin) and Isobel-Ruby Nolan (Blackrock). The ladies' team narrowly missed out on the silver medal position but took the bronze.
Our (mostly) ladies of ILB Wednesday Division 2 lost their champions titles to Clontarf by a single point. Under captain, Terri McKeon, they registered twelve wins and six losses. Bray did not compete in Wednesday Division 1 but that league was won, for the first time ever, by Westmanstown. In the Junior Challenge Cup the same Bray team beat Dun Laoghaire in the semi-final to set up a showdown against Westmanstown in the final at Leinster. As a sizeable contingent of club supporters looked on, the girls battled the non-stop rain as well as the opposition to retain their trophy.
Bray came third in Vets 1 (Captain: Frank Devlin) and joint second in Vets 2 (Theresa Martin). The respective winners for these leagues were CYM 'A' and Dun Laoghaire 'B'. In Vets 4A Ger Minogue's outfit finished joint third and Pat Tracey's 4B side ended in ninth position. Both of these divisions were won by teams from North Kildare.
For 30 years the pair of long, white benches in front of the viewing hut had served our spectators well but by now they had pretty well lost their battle with the Irish weather. Our resident chippy, Ray Rigley, made new ones of the same design. These were then painted white by John Dunne and his crew. It is now safe again to sit down at Bray!
On a bright Thursday morning the club gave a two-hour lesson to 36 transition year students from Loreto College, Bray. Many club members were there to help out. Afterwards the club had a visit from 93-year-old bowler, Peg, from British Columbia, and her daughter, Patricia.
After many hard-fought matches during the summer the weekend of the Bray club championship finals finally arrived. There was no women's championship this year but the men's competition was won by the evergreen Tommy Cahill who overcame the challenge of Peter Gough. This was only Tommy's second win in the competition. 52 years had elapsed since his first!
Mark Hughes re-started the club singles ladder for the off-season. Entrants are ranked according to performance during the summer. Any bowler can challenge another, up to eight places above them. If they win the match they take his/her place on the ladder and the loser drops one. There was considerable interest among members, over fifty of whom entered.
Patrick Brosnan, Bray BC.
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