But it’s still a high-level ball hockey event and Corner Brook resident Jeremy Bishop was just happy to be asked to take part.
Bishop helped power Ireland to a silver medal at the World Ball Hockey Federation’s World Ball Hockey Championship in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Irish team was actually made up of Canadians — from Alberta and Newfoundland — of Irish descent, including Bishop and former Corner Brook Royal Terry Ryan.
The team’s luck ran out in the championship game, where they fell 5-2 to the United States. It was their only loss of the tournament.
Ireland advanced to the gold-medal match on the strength of a 3-2 overtime win over Team Canada in the semifinal, after defeating Slovakia 6-0 in their quarter-final matchup.
During the round-robin portion of the event, Ireland downed Croatia 8-1, defeated Greece 11-0 and tied West Indes 4-4.
Bishop amassed 18 points (6G-12A) in the six contests, being held pointless only once, in the gold-medal game.
The 34-year-old said, because it was Ireland’s first time competing at this level, tournament organizers allowed them to put together a team of Canadians with Irish heritage in the hopes a good performance would heighten the sport’s popularity in the country.
“That’s the basic idea of what they’re trying to accomplish,” he said last week, before the tournament had concluded.
“I’m sure if we do well, ball hockey would, I assume, get a bit bigger in Ireland.”
