Man I wish I’d brought my camera.
This past Saturday, in celebration of Kenney The Elder‘s birthday, family and friends gathered for our first attempt at Irish Road Bowling out at Kent’s Store. What is this Irish Road Bowling?
The basic premise is similar to golf. Participants, usually four person teams, throw a 28 ounce (800 g) bowl or “bullet” along a country road course, up to 4 km long, and the fewest throws to traverse the distance wins the contest.
Participants in or from Ireland traditionally bet during the contest.
It is a sport which suits all ages, although serious participants acquire styles and distances that casual bowlers can only imagine.
It definitely took some getting used to, some of us getting the hang of it pretty quick, others taking a bit longer. Once we got out of the gravel driveway the game got a bit more interesting with a lot more roll to the throw on the road and the banking really making shots interesting. We also ended up having a few spectators other than family after a while.
Lessons learned:
– Spray painting the cannonballs with bright colors would be quite helpful for when the ball goes off the road and into Lord knows where.
– A road shower would be helpful, not just for marking the best path but also making sure folks know where the ball is when it leaves the road. And maybe help avoid these situations.
– Once we hit the open road the rest of the Kenney Bros. just couldn’t compete. That’s right, I said it. You guys suck.
– Perhaps I should study this guy’s technique:
There was not only talk of doing this again sometime (you can bet it’ll happen again) but also talk of opening it up to anyone wanting to join in. I will keep the world posted.