Onderstaand artikel is het persbericht van de Ierse bond over de Queen and King of the roads wedstrijden waar Silke en Bastiaan aan deelnemen:
PRESS RELEASE NO—September 27, 2009—NO EMBARGO
The twenty fifth King and Queen of the Roads classic will draw huge numbers of road bowling fans to the little village of Ballincurrig near Midleton, Co. Cork for the three day festival beginning on Friday October 9th.
Since its inception in 1985 this event has grown in stature and is now the preeminent classic. All the leading road bowlers in Ireland will participate as well as the top bowlers from Germany and Holland. The most prestigious prizes are the King of the Roads and the Queen of the Roads, but the event is augmented by three other events.
The Hurley's of Midleton King of the Roads is a who's who of the best bowlers in Europe. Ten times All-Ireland champion Michael Toal will be hoping to gain his third crown, but will have to contend with European Dutch Moors champion Philip O'Donovan and Dutch national champion Bastiaan Zwiers in his semi-final.
The other semi-final has European Road Bowling champion David Murphy against his brother Aidan, who is also reigning King of the Roads and current Munster champion, and German champion Henning Feyen. To win either semi-final will require a phenomenal effort, but whoever goes all the way the following day will certainly be worthy of the title King of the Roads 2009.
There has been a massive buzz about the arrival of Dutch teenage superstar Silke Tulk for the Pizza Plus Queen of the Roads. She was the star of the 2008 European Championships winning a gold medal in both the Road and Dutch Moors events and taking an unprecedented bronze medal from the Germans in the their specialist lofting arena.
She plays Munster champion Geraldine Daly in the first of the semi-finals on Friday. The third player here will either be Juliet Murphy Cork Ladies Football five-in-a-row star or Gretta Cormican who tops the All-Ireland roll of honour and is a former World and European champion. This will truly be a test for Tulk on her first attempt at the Queen of the Roads.
The second semi-final sees All-Ireland champion and former Queen of the Roads Dervla Toal-Mallon against reigning Queen Maria Noonan and German Champion Simone Davids. The two Irish women are intense rivals, but they will not have things their own way. It will be Davids second successive year at Ballincurrig. She will be hoping last year's run will bring her to the point where she can emulate the great Antje Schottler and Kerstin Friedrichs who have previously won the title for Germany.
The Jim O'Driscoll Cup has three of the country's top intermediate players in contention, at least two of whom will be bowling senior in 2010. In Friday's semi-final All-Ireland champion Willie O'Donovan takes on emerging star David Hubbard for the right to play Ulster champion Martin Toal in Sunday's final.
In the Charlie McCarthy Cup Munster champions Killian Kingston (under-18) and Arthur McDonagh (Junior C) take on two reigning All-Ireland champions from Ulster—Kieran Morgan (Junior B) and Thomas Mackle who beat Kingston in the All-Ireland under-18 final. All four players are at the beginning of careers that promise to see them in the top flight within a few years.
The Dairypower challenge brings together four players from the recent All-Ireland Series Three at Drogheda. Representing Munster are All-Ireland Novice II champion Stephen Quinlan and Munster Novice I champion Bobby Murray. The Ulster pair are from the same grades, Shane Feighan who won the Novice I All-Ireland and Kevin McQuaid who reached the Novice II semi-final.
The Richard Hudson Interprovincial Cup is contested between Munster and Ulster on a points based system, Munster are the current holders. The William O'Brien Cup is presented to the player who plays the most outstanding bowl of the weekend. There is also the Denis McGarry Photographic competition for bowlers on the ditch and a primary schools art competition.
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