This weeks Over 60’s Bowls has been marred with controversy after Port St Mary B decided to concede their game at North Ramsey B, due allegedly to the fact that some of their players were also playing at North Ramsey in the evening! Actions like this have a serious effect not only on the running of the league and also the merit competition, and it seems inconceivable that they were unable to muster a team from the players available. I would like to add that North Ramsey A are the innocent party in this, and I am sure they would have definitely preferred to have played rather than be given a walkover. Teams should play each and every game, and not decide not to attend, when it suits them, as this not only affects the opposition it also affects each and every team in the league, and would result in anarchy if other teams took similar action. I am sure the Executive Committee will come up with a more suitable punishment than the docking of two points should anything like this happen again, for the good of our sport.

Enough ranting, on with the game, this week with North Ramsey sitting a game out, Castletown narrowed the gap to three points with a very close away win at Marown with two of the two players winning to all but the 5-3 victory could just of easily been reversed. At home on the Thursday Town A hit top form against Nobles B inflicting a whitewash on the visitors. Port St Mary A dropped a point on their visit to Douglas A before beating North Ramsey B 7-1 To lie four points behind Castletown A, Onchan have moved up to fourth place on 36 points two behind PSM A, missing the chance to close right up by getting draws at South Ramsey, then being held by Peel A at home, Peel A are level with Ballaugh on 33 points 3 behind Onchan, Ballaugh having a full house this week with two 5-3 wins at home to Finch Hill and Away to Onchan B, next up one point behind come Castletown B, Nobles A and Douglas A, Castletown B beat Port Erin 7-1 before going down 5-3 at Nobles A, who in turn lost to Peel A in their other match. Douglas A had two tough games and came away with three points holding PSM A before winning at Marown 5-3. With South Ramsey and Marown on 31 points only two points separate 5th to 11th positions. The Merit is led by Stuart Garrett of Douglas who has won 24 games on 23 wins are Mike Hargraves (Castletown) and Geoff Porter (North Ramsey) with 22 victories are Chas Grills (South Ramsey) and Ron Maycox (Port St Mary) while on 21 wins are Tony Carroon (Peel B), Roger Thomas (South Ramsey), George Peach (Castletown B) and Colin Hinds (Onchan). The Popular Charlie Howland Pairs Competition was played at Ballaugh on Friday in good conditions with 24 pairs in contention. After some excellent bowling throughout the competition the Onchan Pairing of Mike Thomas and Paul Bailey were the victors over home green pairing Dave Foulis and Paul Bradford 21-19 in a very thrilling final, the losing semi-finalist were also both from Ballaugh, Dave McTaggart and Arthur Moore and John Keenan and Peter Graham. The Over 60’s are very grateful for Charlie Howland for his wonderful sponsorship of the competition, Ballaugh Bowling Club for being such good hosts and the ladies in the kitchen for keeping everyone fed and watered throughout the afternoon. The Ismay Cup Final between North Ramsey A and Port St Mary A will be held at Nobles Green on Wednesday 12th August 2pm start

The Tower Insurance Over 60’s League stills has North Ramsey A as top dogs after a 7-1 home victory over Nobles B on Tuesday, however they were slightly fortunate on their visit to Onchan B winning 5-3 including a walkover as Onchan B only had seven players available, The Southside Giants, Castletown A and Port St Mary A continue their chase of the leader, both also winning both games, Town went to their bogey green Port Erin and came away with a 7-1 win before using home green advantage to see of South Ramsey 5-3. Port St Mary had the result of the week going to Peel A and demolishing them 7-1 before whitewashing visitors Port Erin. Nobles A had the bragging rights against rivals Douglas A by using home advantage to win 7-1 with Vinty Dugdale being the first player to beat Stuart Garrett in the league this season, Onchan A have also hit form at present and had a whitewash over Finch Hill, and to show how close games can be North Ramsey B who are near the foot of the table nearly pulled of a surprise by only just going down 5-3 to Onchan A with North Ramsey Players losing to 20 and 19, Ballaugh also had a good week winning at Port St Mary B and then seeing of Castletown B, Another team moving up the league are Marown who collected four points this week with 5-3 wins over Douglas and Port St Mary B. The Merit Table has a new leader in Geoff Porter of North Ramsey who is fractionally ahead of Stuart Garrett of Douglas, both having won 22 games, Geoff missed out on opening up a bigger gap by losing to Ken Bridson of Onchan on the Thursday. On 21 wins come Chas Grills of Ramsey and Mike Hargraves of Castletown, with Ron Maycox of Port St Mary and Roger Thomas of South Ramsey on 20 wins. This week also saw the semi-finals of the Ismay Cup, with as expected the two home teams won both by 7-2 scores, North Ramsey A beating Port Erin and Port St Mary A defeating Peel B, This should make a very close final between two of the big guns in the league,