Road Bowls Sporting Traditions


Road Bowls

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Road bowling predates football, Gaelic football, soccer,

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probably rugby.

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In Armagh, it's part and parcel of who we are,

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it's part of our identity. You grew up with road bowls.

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We refer to road bowling here in Armagh as bullets.

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CHEERING

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People outside Armagh - if you talk about bullets,

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they don't have a notion what you're talking about.

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Every shot's different, every course is different, that's where the challenge comes in.

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The rivalry between Cork and Armagh is fierce. It's unbelievable.

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The one thing that we train hard to do every year

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is to beat our Cork opponents.

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DISTANT SHOUTING

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I'll give 3-2 the score.

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I'll take 7-4.

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I'll give 3-2 the score. I'll take 7-4.

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We're unique in many ways. There's no admission charge.

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It's free to all-comers.

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You just land, you go out the road, it's there, you walk, you enjoy it.

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We don't charge in.

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We've no changing rooms, no equipment.

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All we have is a pair of runners, a T-shirt and a road bowl.

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The aim is to start at a starting line,

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travel through to the finish

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in the least number of throws.

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Each go will be marked by a marker on the road

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and then your next shot starts

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wherever your last bullet ended.

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A proper road bowling road is a road

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that has a lot of twisty bends on it.

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Not big, long straights because anybody can throw a straight bowl,

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but you have to negotiate the corners.

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That's right.

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You generally have someone

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back at the tip who's very familiar with the road,

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and who's a calming influence.

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Let's keep back.

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Further up the road, you'll have another person standing,

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legs astride, and he's basically a target for the player.

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The player is aiming to play the bowl directly

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to the shower on the road to gain maximum distance from the shot.

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The Bol Fada - that's actually the curtain raiser

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for our championships.

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What happens there is the All-Ireland and Ulster and Munster

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champions from the previous season

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would all play against each other in a big tournament.

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We get to see our players, what way they've wintered.

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Have they wintered all right?

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Are they strong, have they been back training for a while?

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How they're bowling.

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That gives us an indication as to how they may bowl in the championship,

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and people follow them, then, throughout the championship.

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CHEERING

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ALL TALK AT ONCE

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I give 3-2 the score. I give 3-2 the score.

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Anybody want it...?

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'There's substantial sums of money wagered on the bullets.

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'It's a gentleman's agreement when someone has a bet with you.'

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There is it there for you. There is it there for you.

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'You may not see any money changing hands,

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'someone might just say, "OK, that's a bet."

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CHEERING

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'You'll hear nothing about it till the end of score,

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'then you'll see the person who won getting paid out.'

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Rightly so!

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CHEERING

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When I was a child at school here, at the college, out on a Sunday walk,

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we usually had a priest along with us,

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I used to watch the game and mingle with the crowd,

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and got so worked up with the excitement.

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CHEERING

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When I looked around, all the other boys had disappeared,

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and I was going to run into trouble for coming back on my own

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to the college. So that's my first encounter with road bowls.

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Bowles came to Ireland from England

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and was especially associated with the weavers,

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so it was a game that was much played in Lancashire.

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When it came to Ireland, it was picked up by the Irish

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and, naturally, it was very much associated here

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in Ireland with the weaving.

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The valley is dotted with mills, Scotch mills especially,

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and right on in to Armagh where you had a mill at Umgola,

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and a mill down at Mill Row.

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It's easy to see how it was part of community life here.

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If you can imagine how they would come out during breaks

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and have a game of bullets on the roads.

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All these little houses were grouped around the mill.

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Each had their own little culture.

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You'd have got different teams, if you like,

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you were from the upper end or the lower end,

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the Navan Street boys or the Mill Row boys.

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The road bowls were a poor man's game.

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It was played by everybody,

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Catholics and Protestants.

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It being Sunday, the road was pretty clear of traffic,

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but sometimes, a car or bicycle would pass.

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Men from cottages along the way joined the crowd.

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The road was soon black with people.

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Finally, the books were closed at a figure never before equalled

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within the memory of the oldest man present.

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?225 aside.

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The throwers peeled off their coats, a coin was spun

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and to mark the butt, a handful of grass was thrown down onto the road.

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It didn't always please certain people,

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for instance, the churches.

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Gambling was very much associated with the bullets,

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and the breaking of the Sabbath.

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The very first mention of the game of long bullets

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is from the records of the Common Council of Londonderry.

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It prohibits the game of long bullets on the ramparts of Derry

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and a fine of five shillings,

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and that kind of attitude went on right on up to the '30s and '40s.

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All the Row fellows began hunching up their shoulders

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and clapping their hands together.

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"Let's cut out the codding and get down to business.

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"Show us what the outer Row is made of."

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All his strength went into the throw,

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his face convulsed.

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He gave a gasping grunt and the bullet left his hand like a rocket.

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A warning cry rang out,

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and those on the footpath scattered like blown chaff.

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The bullet mounted the path and skimmed along like a living thing.

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The din became deafening.

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It swelled like the tumult of a great storm-wracked sea.

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People whistled, screamed,

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shouted hysterically and tossed their hats in the air.

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Finally, it trickled to a halt,

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and sat dead in the very centre of the road.

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This stone has been placed here, maybe 15 years ago,

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to commemorate Joe McVeigh's fantastic feat.

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Joe played from Knappagh crossroads to this point in 22 shots.

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It's clearly written there for everyone to see,

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bowls folk and non-bowls folk alike.

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The record has stood the test of time.

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The great Mick Barry, Danny McParland, Michael Toal, Harry Toal,

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they've all come and attempted to beat this record.

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Some have got very close.

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I know some have covered the course in 23 shots,

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but no-one's ever made it in 22, and I'd suggest no-one ever will.

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Your sport is built on the great players.

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Every young fellow running around with a road bowl in his hand, he wants to be Mick Barry,

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he wants to be Michael Toal, he wants to be Danny McParland.

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Just the same as children playing soccer want to be David Beckham.

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What we decided to do in Armagh

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here to encourage the sport was to start a youth programme,

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to have a new generation of youth coming through, new road bowlers.

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Road bowling's all about timing, so the coaches here,

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what they're doing with their people here today,

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is teaching them to run to the butt fast, to jump and to co-ordinate

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their jump with the swing of their arm,

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their feet touching the ground as the bowl is delivered.

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That might sound simple -

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that's incredibly difficult to do if you've never done it.

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They have to learn how to encounter corners,

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how to play the shot round the corner to achieve the maximum distance.

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To spin the bullet,

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it means that you're holding the bullet.

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When you let the bullet go, it's spinning out of your hand to the right,

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which means when it hits the ground, it's actually turning right.

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If you're pulling the bullet, you're holding the bowl in your hand,

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and when you deliver it, it's coming off your index finger

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and it's turning to the left.

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There's a lad, he's six years old, he's throwing bowls here

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with the people of 14 and he's holding his own.

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These are the people that are gonna take our sport into the next century.

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These are the people that we're gonna coach,

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that will play and win All-Ireland for Armagh.

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It's like anything else,

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it's a sport that's handed down from one generation to another, in families.

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If you went round these people tonight,

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you'd find that their fathers and their forefathers all played road bowls.

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Mick!

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Hey, that's my boy!

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Good shot.

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CHEERING

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CHEERING DROWNS SPEECH

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'A lot of the boys had him backed, a few pounds on him,

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'and he came through with the goods and won.

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'My own experience was it was probably the best day of my life.'

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Thanks, Dennis.

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You'd think I had thrown it!

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Invited guests, ladies and gentlemen...

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You're all very welcome here tonight to our 2005 annual All-Ireland presentation.

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We've been treated to a fantastic weekend of top-class bowling...

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Tonight, they'll discuss the high points of the weekend,

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the great shots they played, the shots that they misplayed

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and how that would have changed the outcome of the score.

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There are older people - they'll be comparing the ability

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of young people to the ability of great players years ago.

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We're a minority sport, so to be part of that minority sport,

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you're an important person - especially if you're young, growing up with a bit of talent,

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then you're extra-special because your parents have played bowls. They see something special

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in their son or their daughter and they want to bring that out in them.

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When you come in here tonight,

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those people who competed against each other so furiously all weekend

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sit down together around a table, tell a story, have a drink.

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They're big, big friends, and when those people come back to Cork,

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we'll be wishing them well and we'll be saying,

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"We look forward to seeing you next year."

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We will look forward to it -

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we have great friends in Cork, Cork have great friends here.

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Even though the rivalry is unbelievable,

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so is the camaraderie.

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We're all big friends,

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we're all just members of this big family, you know?

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