Each town had its bowling alley. And each bowling alley had its people, and its neighbor, there, often surrounding it to enjoy that peculiar wooden sound produced by the collision of the ball with the pins. It was an emblem, the favorite place and meeting point of the people of the municipality. Bowling is one of the most traditional sports in our region. The most popular type is “palm bolo”, which is characterized by the additional difficulty that the ball used to play lacks holes, so it must be caught with the palm of the hand. The objective is to knock down the maximum number of pins by launching a wooden ball from a distance. Other modalities are the Pasabolo plank, the Pasabolo slab and the Bolo Pasiego…
Nowadays, thanks to young people like Iris Cagigas, we can also see women in bowling alleys. His name never ceases to resonate, because in May he broke the record for bowls knocked down in a single contest with a total of 172. Now, from Cubas, his native municipality, he sits down with Revista Peloteros to talk about his journey in this important sport. for Cantabria.
-Iris, the first question is inevitable, how did you start playing bowling? Tell us a little about your beginnings.
It’s quite funny, I come from a bowling family. My grandfather played, my father and my uncles too, and when I was three years old my mother already took me to the bowling alley, because my father was a third-rate player in Somo, and it was she who asked that they make a small sandbox for us at the bowling alley. son of a colleague of my father and for me, with the aim of entertaining ourselves.
But instead of being there, this boy always saw his father steal, and I was behind him. That’s where I started to look at bowling in a different way… It was when I was nine years old when I was at my school, in Ribamontán al Monte, and they brought an extracurricular circular and one of them was a bowling school. I signed up without consulting my parents, something that didn’t make my father happy, but my mother saw it differently… But they both supported me to get what I have now. The instructor at that school was called Paulino, a great slab champion who was my teacher.
Around that age we went to a tournament that was organized in Hoznayo and the person who presented the prizes was Óscar González who saw me play and told my mother that he was going to come as a monitor to Orejo, he asked her if we were interested, because I had potential. As a fan of his, I didn’t hesitate and that’s where we went. When I was about 10, 11 years old I started with him, I progressed and the first year he “tricked” my mother and me and found me a team to compete with. A team in Suances signed me in the top category but of course, there was a problem because to play in La Liga in the top category we had to be 12 years old and I was 11… but they modified that rule so that I could participate.
-And how long did it take until you started competing in a league?
Very little time. When I started at the Ribamontán al Monte School I was already playing in the Women’s League, with other teammates, like Claudia Gándara, who is now a referee, and with my sister.
Then at 11 years old she was the Women’s Absolute with the Suances team and from that moment until today, when I am 27, I am there. I have played in 16 leagues in the highest category and also when I reached the cadet category at the Piélagos school I became captain of the men’s team.
-When competing, how do you prepare yourself mentally?
It is very complicated, because bowling is a sport in which you need technique and physicality, but the worst thing is the head, it is the handicap. It is a sport that demands a lot from you and you have to do everything to the millimeter… My form is curious and attracts attention, normally before competitions I am usually at the bowling alley but with my headphones on listening to music and thinking about my own thing. Then, when I’m in competition I breathe and focus a lot on the ball in my hand. Although yes, it is complicated.
-What is the most precious title or the one you have the most affection for?
A very difficult question because I keep something from everyone… The first Absolute Championship that I won in Orejo when I was 17, because I am the youngest player to win an absolute. It was in Orejo, where I trained with Óscar, where I spent many hours since I was little and many neighbors came to see me. It was something unexpected, because I beat my idols. Then the next two I won were in Suances, in the team that welcomed me. I also won the first Spanish Championship in 2016 in Barreda, it was exciting because I am a person who has seen a lot of bowling and I follow them and there were many people who followed me and one of the greats once told me that until I won a Championship of Spain would be nothing and the day I got it I said, that’s it. Another was the regional championship that I won in Quintana de Toranzo in 2020, because it was a very difficult week for my entire family and that day was complicated, because they buried my Uncle Santi… Winning that tournament was one of the last things he asked of me . But all the championships that I have experienced have something special, although I prefer the one in Quintana de Toranzo that I dedicated to my uncle.
-In May 2024 you set the record for most pins knocked down in a single contest, 172. How was it?
It was a very strange day, it was May 31, the end… I was returning with some friends from the San Isidro festival in Madrid and I was already feeling sick. In the end I work on the computer and sometimes I notice discomfort in my shoulder. Fortunately, I believe that the exercises have their reward and I began to play without being aware of what I was achieving…without knowing the number of pins I had. Specifically on the last ball, when they told me that I had to shoot, was when I found out that something was happening, not that those numbers were but that I was going to achieve something else. The situation was shocking because I thought I was dreaming… I didn’t know when I was going to wake up.
-Although everything is changing, it is true that bowling is a masculinized sport… How have you experienced this issue as a bowler?
I spent five years competing with the children, under the same conditions and trying to be one more. Yes, it is true that my mother and I had to listen to certain comments that that was not my place and that I was taking a man’s place, but luckily there were also kids who supported me and did not discriminate because I was a woman. They saw that he threw the balls from the same distance and that was it. There are still people who continue to say that it is a man’s sport and if we are girls and play we have to be tomboys, but that is not the case at all. It is important to give visibility to girls playing bowling, it is unfair that without seeing us they already give their opinion and cancel us. Thanks to the media there are people who have gotten hooked on women’s bowling, it is a faster and more attractive game because we bowl more. Little by little we are changing that vision and you can’t compare women’s bowling so much with men’s bowling, you can like different things.
-It is also true that although there are more young people like you every day, a generational change in this sport is important. How do you see this situation? Do you have friends who play too?
Luckily, I met many of my friends when I was in the minor categories; bowling has given me great friendships. Regarding the generational change, although I am young, there are seasons when I sometimes see it as gray. There are girls who are rising in this sport but the difficult thing is to keep them… We are used to living in a society in which we want the results to come quickly and as soon as possible, and to be good, but in bowling it is very complicated, there is a high level , there are eight or nine players who easily make very high records, going over 135 on the bad day. This makes it difficult for those who come from below to sneak into the eight places that give them a place in the finals. Many girls end up falling apart but they have to improve themselves day by day.
-Tete Rodríguez, Jesús Salmón, Víctor González, Fuentevilla… great figures of this sport in Cantabria, but who has been your reference in all these years?
I think everyone who knows me knows who my favorite is. Both my family and I have been very close to him… Since I was very little I have been a member of the Peña Bolística-Puertas Roper, which is now Camargo… and this person is Óscar González, I never missed a game of his… My references have always been It will be him and Tete, the greatest in all of history and a person from whom I would have liked to learn.
I have an anecdote with him and it is that one of the Cantabria Sports Galas, which that year was held in Treceño, I went up to collect the title of Regional Champion and he was there and he addressed me and told me “I’m going to greet the feminine Tete.” I didn’t wash my face those days because Tete gave me two kisses. In short, Óscar and Tete are my great references. Although it is important to mention Victor too… he is doing a great job. As for the girls, Judith Well, she is my reference, she is a very tough rival but having her in front of me brings out 100% of me and if I lose, I lose against the best…
And how do you feel knowing that you are the role model for many girls and young women?
It’s a great pressure. I try to do everything possible to support them, to encourage them, I try to do what I would have liked them to do with me… That Óscar gave me a trophy or the two kisses from Tete for me was a reinforcement to not abandon bowling and continue. It’s a lot of responsibility and I try to take great care of how I behave in the bowling alley, knowing how to behave, manners… that is, respect for the players and the people who are watching us. In the end you are a reflection where they can look at each other.
#Iris #bowling #dream #historical #record
