The High Court has rejected Kieran Gould’s challenge to a two-year suspension from road bowling, finding that the association’s disciplinary process did not breach natural justice. Mr Justice Smyth declined to declare the suspension invalid and vacated an interim order that had restrained the Cork County Championship final from being played.
The dispute followed a senior championship match on 28 May 2006. Before play began, Gould took practice shots while a large crowd and parked cars were nearby. The court accepted evidence that some shots hit cars, one narrowly missed a man using a wheelchair, and Gould continued after the steward and referee warned him about safety.
Gould won the match. On 7 June, the association’s Executive Committee suspended him for two years for alleged breaches of rules concerning safety and compliance with officials’ instructions. Gould sought a declaration that the decision was invalid, arguing that the process was unfair and that steward Brendan Hayes’s participation created bias.
The judge found that Gould had received written notice of the complaints and that there was no substantial difference between the notice and the case considered at the meeting. Reports from the referee and steward were read aloud. Gould attended with a representative who was an association member, was invited to respond, and did not ask at the meeting to cross-examine witnesses. The court also noted that five potential witnesses said to be outside the meeting were not identified or called.
The court accepted that Hayes took part in discussion as association secretary but did not vote. It found no evidence that those who decided the suspension were biased. The association’s honorary legal adviser, who was present, was found to have acted impartially and not to have directed the committee’s decision.
The judge said the committee was entitled to consider the safety concerns and the potential for injury or damage. He declined to replace the penalty with one he considered more proportionate, noting that the rules authorised the committee to choose among a range of penalties. The court refused the relief sought and vacated the order made on 16 June 2006 restraining the final. It did not order that the final be played; it lifted the restraint.