An Irish Road Bowler winds up to throw a regulation ball down Trough Road on Sunday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Around 90 people gathered together on the grounds of Printz Farm in Shepherdstown on Sunday, eager to compete in West Virginia Irish Road Bowling Association’s (WVIRBA) annual Shepherdstown Pack Horse Ford Event.

Out of the attendees, a total of 19 four-person-teams competed in the event. For some participants, this was their very first time playing the game.

“My cousins — my third or fourth cousins — have been playing this for a while, and they invited me to join their team this year,” said Shepherdstown resident Jamie Byron of his team, which was dubbed Lord Byron.

He said he enjoyed participating in the game on Trough Road, in spite of his inexperience at Irish Road Bowling.

“It’s fun. I like it — it’s pretty low pressure,” Byron said. “They take it seriously, but not too seriously.”

An Irish Road Bowler follows his team’s ball down Trough Road on Sunday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

The event drew participants from across the state, as well as the District of Columbia and neighboring states, eager to try their hand at competing in the 400-year-old sport. However, a good number of teams at the event were local to the Eastern Panhandle, including the Berkeley Springs Brewing team.

“We were sitting around at the brewery three years ago, and they said that somebody wanted them to have a team,” said team member Rick Franklin, of Berkeley Springs, mentioning it was related to a sponsorship opportunity at WVIRBA’s annual event at Cacapon Resort State Park. “We hadn’t played it before, but we came in second.”

Franklin, his wife Letizia and his daughter Isabella have all embraced the sport in the years since then, in spite of Franklin being the only one of Irish descent. For them, Irish Road Bowling has become a favorite way of spending time with family and friends.

“I’m Italian and she’s Guatemalan, so we’re only Irish by relation — still, it’s a lot of fun,” Letizia said, mentioning they typically participate in two of the 20-some WVIRBA events held throughout the year — the ones in Berkeley Springs and Shepherdstown. “It is competitive, though, and some people take it very seriously. Some of them go to Ireland to compete in the Irish Road Bowling over there. But we just do this to have fun.”

Letizia herself has competed at some of the WVIRBA events, though she was only serving as a spectator on Sunday. Her daughter, meanwhile, was serving as Berkeley Springs Brewing’s score keeper. Although Isabella has not played on an Irish Road Bowling team yet, she is a big fan of the sport — enough to plan to, someday, attend a professional competition in Ireland.

Participants at the West Virginia Irish Road Bowling Association’s (WVIRBA) annual Shepherdstown Pack Horse Ford Event are pictured together on the grounds of Prince Farm on Sunday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

“It’s a whole thing in Ireland. Towns shut down for the day, when a competition is going on,” Isabella said. “The entire towns will line the streets and they will have to set up metal guard rails, because otherwise the balls will hit the crowd.”

The game itself, according to WVIRBA President Stephen Holmes, originated at an Irish Army encampment, where some soldiers thought up how to play a game with cannon balls. Today, the game has changed somewhat, as it is now played on paved roads. Teams or individual players play the game, seeing who can make the fewest rolls, to get a 10-pound iron ball from the start line to the finish line.

“I always say, it must have been a drunken Irishman who came up with this game, throwing a 10-pound ball around,” Letizia said, with a chuckle.

To learn more, visit http://www.wvirb.com/.