Johnny Creedon, the road bowler who got in the zone before getting in the zone was even a concept
Bowling Legend Away Has Johnny Who Passed Road Creedon,
Johnny Creedon a bowler who was never defeated in a championship final in Munster, including a senior final against the legendary Mick Barry, has passed away.
Between 1963 and the emergence of Denis Scully in 1973, the All-Ireland championship was a duopoly, held in the iron grip of Mick Barry and Danny McParland. In this sentence I have mentioned three players that are considered the crème-de-la-crème of all-time greats, Creedon rubbed shoulders with those giants.
In 1968, the year of student protests across the world, Creedon disrupted that duopoly and the order in the bowling world. He took Barry down in the Munster senior final and went on to topple McParland in the All-Ireland final, both at Nadd. His achievement stands out as prominently as does Uluru in Australia.
He also won the Munster senior final in 1960, against Donie Lehane at The Miles, before the emergence of the All-Ireland series. He won his third senior title in 1979 against Donie Coveney at Ballyshonin, but lost the All-Ireland to Pat Mallon at Blackwatertown. He beat Mallon in a dramatic last shot in the previous year’s Intermediate final. He also had a distinguished career in the green singlet for Ireland.
Creedon was a greater player than the list of his All-Ireland achievements might suggest. Flor Crowley, the leading authority on bowling for several decades, summed up his innate ability, when reporting for the Evening Echo on a famous score in Portumna in 1969. That score included both Mick Barry and Denis Scully.
Crowley, a man who offered his praise carefully, eulogised Creedon’s performance. "Creedon was at that time fully afire with the 'battlefury' that seems to possess him on his days of top form". That was the quintessential Creedon. He got in the zone, before getting in the zone was even a concept.
He loved to overcome adversity and put it up to his opponent, including the likes of Barry and Scully. That he could outshine those two luminaries tells us all we need to know about Creedon’s class.
He was not a man to be bowed by convention either. In a time when bowlers played in everyday attire, Creedon would tog out in his football shorts. Performance mattered more than convention. That drive for performance came to the fore when he jointly managed the Irish men and youth’s teams, with Pat O’Sullivan, for the European Championships in 1992.
Creedon was a big man, with a big heart, a big sense of fun, a big sense of going for it and a powerful bowler that deserves greater mention in the pantheon of the all-time greats.