About The 2008 European Championships

The full Irish squad and team running orders for the European Bowling Championships were announced at a special reception in Cork last night.

The championships will be played in Cork over the May bank holiday weekend. Each national team will compete in the three national disciplines of Irish Road Bowling, Dutch Moors Bowling and German Lofting.

Each of the sports is distinct but they have related rules and structures. It is believed they may have a common origin, but little is know about the early history of the sports, which date well back into the last millennium. The Italian national federation also participates, but its game, which is the most like Irish bowling, does not constitute a discipline for the European championships.

The games will be officially opened in Cork city on Thursday May 1st, with a parade thought the city centre culminating with an official flag raising ceremony at Cork city hall.

The games proper begin with the German Lofting competition at the Nemo Rangers Complex in Douglas on Friday May 2. Although Ireland will participate in this event against the two German federations, Holland and Italy, the chances of medals are limited. It is anticipated that this will an all-German affair between the FKV of Ostfriesland and Oldenburg and the VSHB federation from Schleswig-Holstein.

The top players from these federations are capable of lofting the German bowl up to and over 100m. The Irish will expect to be third overall, beating both the Dutch and Italians, and perhaps even sneaking a minor medal. The FKV team use the Friesian ramp, which helped Hans-Gorg Bohlken loft the Chetwynd Viaduct and the VSHB use a very specialised revolving technique.

The real business for the Irish will commence on Saturday May 2 in the Dutch Moors arena at the Rathcoole Airfield near Millstreet. Here the contestants play over a grass track using a wooden bowl with a lead core. Each player has ten throws to cover as much of the course as possible. Although this is the Dutch national game, the Irish technique is well suited to the sport and the Irish have tended to dominate this discipline in recent years.

Victory in the Dutch Moors is essential for an overall Irish win as points are accumulated over each of the three days. At the very least the Irish will be expecting to dominate the individual medals tally and win as many of the individual team events as possible. A good return on the Moors would set the scene for an overall victory on the road on Sunday May 3 in Bandon.

Here the Irish will ironically by in a far more competitive environment. Irish bowling has become the most popular event in all the member countries of the International Bowlplaying Association. So all five teams will be expecting a share of the medals.

Ireland having a home venue will be very confident. Several of the senior men have gone over 2kms in ten shots during the national trials and in training sessions. Some of the youth team are within a few hundred metres of that target and the top Irish women have gone over 1,300m. There is a strength in depth and a seriousness about this squad that puts it ahead of most previous Irish teams.

The big prize here is the team event, but for many it also comes down to the senior men’s gold medal. Almost any member of the team might snatch that prize, but if they do they will reverse a 20-year trend. The last Irish man to win a European gold medal was Dan O’Halloran at Norden in Germany in 1988. It is now a holy grail and one senses that it will finally be captured.