Walking back from the score towards Dunmanway along a narrow country road, the evening sun casts long shadows. There are no markings bar the chalk lines just put down and the tall grass verge on either side. People were giving out about this vegetation at the score, saying it swallowed up the ball as soon as it came in contact. I am a little ahead of everyone else, having left as soon as the game ended. A man with an American accent stops his car to ask a question.

“Excuse me ma’am, do you know what ‘road bowling in progress’ means?”

Quickly I contemplate that this could be a joke, seeing as it is only in the last hour I have really learned the ins and outs of road bowling myself. But he seems genuine, so I go on to explain as best I can, regurgitating what I have just been told.

Road bowling (rhymes with howling) is a game played primarily in Cork and Armagh but also to a lesser extent in other areas around the country, and abroad too, in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. The aim of the game is similar to that of golf: to get the ball from one set point to another in as few shots as possible. A match takes place between two opponents along a road, one throwing after the other. The ball used is 28 ounces of iron, I inform him.

“So it’s like a legit game? I thought it was like a protest or a riot or something,” the tourist laughs. It is most definitely a bona fide sport with a referee, officials and everything, I confirm. He is appeased, so he thanks me and continues on.

Idiosyncrasies

I too am content, deciding that I did a pretty good job of describing road bowling. But then I think better of it. The event I just witnessed was full of vigour and colour. Road bowling has loads of particulars and idiosyncrasies, which I failed to convey.

Gretta Cormican from Lyre outside Clonakilty is now retired from road bowing but won every competition in her day: 13 county championships, seven All-Irelands, a European championship, a world title and Queen of the Road. The famed former road bowler (although she humbly disputes this iconic status whenever it is mentioned) does a better job of describing the sport when asked.

Bol Chumann na hÉireann is the governing body. Players from different clubs compete in various age categories and ability levels. A match is called a score, as long ago it used to be that the player who could throw the ball furthest in 20 shots won, so a score of 20. Here is where things get interesting: although a score is one-on-one in the main, each player has a team of advisers with them, called road showers. As much as road bowling is about strength and accuracy, knowing how the fall of the road will affect your throw is hugely important. This is where the team comes in.

At the score in Dunmanway, Gretta is showing road for her brother Ted. The person standing out the road picks a “sop” – a tuft of grass – from the ditch and lays it down to indicate the target path at which the player should aim. In consultation with the others, Gretta places the sop. To further emphasise where Ted needs to aim, she stands a few paces back from it, with her legs wide apart as a target. Other supporters join in standing behind her.

From where the player is throwing at the butt or mark, there is usually another road shower. This person is like a caddie in golf. They advise the competitor what path to run while throwing. When the ball finishes rolling, the marksmen indicate that point on the road with chalk and the player goes from there on the next throw.

The road showers are not only there for their expertise, they, along with the supporters, also offer encouragement. “Go’wan Ted boy, lash it off that sop now boy.”

Playing with the boys

Gretta has four older brothers and got into road bowling through them. In her childhood and teenage years, there were no ladies’ competitions, so she took on the boys.

“It was only in 1980 that they introduced women to the competitive side of it,” says Gretta. “My dad entered me into the boys under-16 championship in 1976. It went well enough; I got to the semi-final, but I was beaten. That was that. I did that under-18 as well and then the women started in 1980.”

At this stage Gretta was 19 and in the inaugural year of the women’s championship she saw no silverware. The next year she got the ball really rolling, beginning to carve a path for herself as one of the most successful female road bowlers.

Neither of Gretta’s parents played competitively, but everyone bowled when her mother and father were young, she explains. Older people often tell of how they used to bowl home from school in the evenings.

As their parents were dairy farmers and publicans, Gretta and her brothers were never short of work. Carting around bales, she says, particularly helped build up her strength.

Tradition

Road bowling is steeped in tradition and no one knows this better than Seamus O’Tuama, who reports on the sport for the Irish Examiner. Although mostly present in the strongholds of Cork and Armagh, it was once played across the whole country, explains Seamus. Founder of the GAA, Michael Cusack is said to have been a fan.

Now road bowling not only preserves culture and tradition, but it also connects place names to communities, says Seamus.

“In many ways the bowlers maintain the authentic traditional names for all different parts of the road. Most people driving by, even people living in the area, mightn’t know the names of places and the bowlers use those names, so they are passed on. There are accounts of scores played on roads 150 years ago and the exact same names are used,” says Seamus.

At the score in Dunmanway, we are at Collins’s corner in three throws.

Throughout the years, the style of bowling has mostly stayed the same, although Cork and Armagh players tend to throw in two completely different fashions. Both toss underhand but the Rebel County do a full circular rotation of the arm as they pivot their body, while the Orchard County extend their arm back and throw straight forward. In Armagh, road bowling is sometimes referred to as long bullets.

One thing that has changed over time though, says Gretta, is how daring the players are. “Sometimes if there are no trees in the way they will loft it over the corner, but very seldom they do it now.

“Long ago the older people used to loft all the corners. One fella lofted it over a pub, because the pub was on the bloody corner,” she laughs. “He got away with it, it landed on the road at the far side. Mental. You wouldn’t do it now.”

Social

Walking to different stages of score, two older men in front of me are discussing another game they were at the previous evening. They attended both scores as spectators, but one of them played a pickup on the way back yesterday. A pickup is an informal game played back the way at the end of a competitive score. It is usually two-on-two and arranged there and then on the road.

Initially I was worried I would not be able locate the score in Dunmanway. I need not have been. Just look for the road with a large gathering of people on it. Roads are not closed off, except for All-Irelands, but signs are erected and cars are let pass at regular intervals by marshals. Scores are usually well attended and are a great social occasion in communities.

“People come out just for the chat, you know,” smiles Gretta. “People come out to spectate at a senior score and they are talking to a fella they haven’t seen in 10 years. It’s a great social occasion for anyone.

“We have a score every weekend, oh religiously. It is like we have to get our fix for the weekend, so we have a score.” CL