It was a nail-biting finish, down to the last wood – the Kenilworth Triples Team won their final match in the Irish Women’s Bowling Association Championships. For want of a better name, I call these the All-Ireland Championships of the lawn bowling world. This means the winners will go on to play in the British Isles Championships to be held in Llandindrod Wells in Wales next June. This is one of the pinnacles of the international lawn bowling scene. An honour indeed. I am so happy and pleased for the Kenilworth team.
And I am delighted I was here in Dublin this year to watch the IWBA Championship Matches. I haven’t been bowling this year because of the protracted move to Seattle plus the trip to Hong Kong. Otherwise I would like to think that I could have been a part of this team as I was for the British Isles Championships in Llandindrod Wells in 2007. That was certainly a marvelous experience. But this year it has been a thrill to be here in Dublin to watch the play over the past 2 days. My heart was pounding for them. Congratulations again to the winning 3.
I will add that the 4’s final was also won by a Dublin club – Blackrock. Also exciting because I know the people involved and it is great to have 2 Dublin clubs representing all of Ireland in the British Isles Championships next June.
Can I find a team in Seattle and aspire to represent the U.S. in an international competition?? Little did I think when we first took up lawn bowling in Kenya that I would have such dreams. I appreciate more now how the women in Kenya felt about representing their country in the inter-country African competitions and also to be selected for the Commonwealth Games. Lawn bowling is a wonderful sport – for young and old!
the winning 3
action on the rink
it can be lonely out there – this photo was taken on the 17th end – a crucial point in the match – only one more end to play
Blackrock winners on the adjacent rink
at L’Officina with good friends
The photo above of the winning 3 is actually after they won their semi-final match. We had to watch the final ends of the final match from a different vantage point and as soon as we saw that they had won we rushed off, late, to have lunch with friends, shown above.
