West Virginia 2025 Irish Road Bowling champion crowned in Ireland

IRELAND, W.Va. (WBOY) — On Sunday in Lewis County, the community of Ireland hosted the 2025 West Virginia Irish road bowling championship, with the winners advancing to the national championship in Boston, Massachusetts.

For those unfamiliar, competitive Irish road bowling is a sport that got its start in Ireland, West Virginia. The goal is simple: get your ball from the start line to the finish line in as few rolls as possible. Like golf, the player with the fewest shots is declared the winner.

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12 News was able to spectate the Division II state championship, a division that includes the best road bowlers in West Virginia, according to long-time Irish road bowler and event organizer David Powell.

“These are the best players in the state, and you will see shots that go 200 or even 250 yards on a narrow country road, that’s the excitement of the sport are the long shots,” Powell told 12 News.

The winner of Sunday’s match was Travis Craig, a three-time national champion in Irish road bowling who’s been in the sport for more than 30 years. Although no one from West Virginia has ever won the world championship in Irish road bowling, Craig said each player in attendance had aspirations to bring a world championship home to the Mountain State.

“I’ve been playing Irish road bowling since it started here in West Virginia, so I was probably 15, 16 years old, so, I’m 48 now—long time,” Craig said. “Just keep it fun you know? Just go out and have a good time, do it as much as you can. You wanna get your accuracy down first and the speed will come.”

The West Virginia Irish Road Bowling Association (WVIRBA) hosts competitions throughout the year, so if you want to try your hand at Irish road bowling, you can find a list of upcoming events across West Virginia here.