Bowls club celebrates 30 memorable years
Mitchel st own Bowls Club was formed on 13th September, 1993 when, as Tom Lawton says, “Fr Browne put a gun to our head and made us come!”.
Fr Browne’s enthusiasm was matched by Canon Sheehan, who suggested the formation of the club 30 years ago, as there was ‘nothing happening’ in the Town Hall. They invited the group from Conna Bowling Club, who had formed two years earlier, to Mitchelstown to teach the game and a club was born.
Those original members included Phil Lawton and Tom Lawton, who have continued to play with the club to this day. In 1993 they were joined not only by Fr Browne and Canon Sheehan, but also by Maureen Walsh, Elizabeth Lodge, Michael O’Brien, Tim Molan, Dick Cahill, John Sherlock, Jim Burke, Joe Caplice, Michael Walsh and John Lyons.
RECALLING 30 GREAT YEARS
The Avondhu met Phil and Tom Lawton, along with long-time club member Veronica Caplice, in Veronica’s home on the Clonmel Road in Mitchelstown, as well as ‘Lady Jane’, Veronica’s stunning cat. The club keeps meticulous hand-written records, along with many photos of competitions and nights out amassed through the years, as well as a list of all their wins.
There were 33 members in the club’s first year in existence and since then, membership has fluctuated up and down, with 16 active members in 2023. While the club used to have a Junior section, Veronica admits, laughing, that when their young players ‘discover boys and girls, they forget the bowls!’.
The attraction of the sport, says Tom Lawton, is its sociable aspect. While in the Republic, the game is largely confined to an older age group, Tom goes on to say that in Northern Ireland, all age groups play the sport. The club has amassed plenty of silverware and glassware through the years (and enough clocks to supply the town), and in the 2022/’23 season won first place in the first division, quite literally putting the club in a new league. However, their Northern counterparts are always a fiendish opponent, with players starting at a young age, the sport is ‘like a second religion’.
“We travel to the North and they come to us. We never did any good, but we’d great fun!”.
Getting to the competitions was its own adventure on occasion. Admitting to a woeful sense of direction, Veronica remembers a time when on their way to Ballinlough and, being late, they ended up with a man getting into the car with them to guide them: happily, they won the match that night. On another occasion, Phil Lawton was contesting a singles competition but again, running hopelessly late. Running in the door, her competitor was already packing up her shoes, sure that victory was hers. Not only did Phil not have time to even put her shoes on, she also won that night!
Charlie Dowling, Patricia O’Donnell, Vinny O’Donnell and Dick Cahill formed the team that won this year’s Martha Treacy Cup. The club were not always so successful however, as Tom laments a game in Bandon where, as captain, his charges did everything but the right thing, adding: “They might as well have played for the other team!”
That said, they admit that for every competition, at one stage or another Mitchelstown Bowls Club has won it.
To be a successful player requires good eye contact and good judgement. When asked about the remarkable continuation of a club that has stood the test of time, Veronica puts their longevity down to friendship.
“We all get on well and we just like playing bowls. We’re great friends and we get on great.”
Phil adds that they also enjoy friendships with their counterpart clubs in Watergrasshill and Conna, while Tom’s take on their continuance is their wins - “We had a lot of success; it kept us going.”
WEEKLY GAMES CONTINUE
When the Fermoy Bowls Club closed down, three of its members joined their neighbours: Andy Callanan, the late John Harnett of The Forge Bar and the late Joe Cowell. Reminiscing on the Cork ‘city vs county’ competition (which has not resumed since Covid), the trio remark that while the county side usually won, both Jim Caplice and Veronica were, at one time or another, captains of their respective men’s and women’s teams.
The members play every Monday and Friday evening in the Town Hall in Mitchelstown, enjoying regular league games against their near-neighbours Conna and Watergrasshill, as well as many other clubs. The club are always welcoming new members and, all going well, will continue to celebrate the anniversary of the club’s formation for many years to come.