A good entry of 44 competed for the honour of club champion in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club over two days last weekend with the outcome giving three of the main trophies to the same team.

Mean Machine recently wrapped up their eighth league crown, adding the Derek Killey memorial trophy, which was won by Glynn Hargraves and now securing the club championship to the collection, after Alan Moore beat Matthew Keggen from Louie’s Angels.

The first day saw the participants play down to the quarter-finals stage, with the Meanies having three players through in the top half of the draw, and after the openers they had two winners as Stefan Kelly joined Alan in the next round.

Kelly, who is the junior merit winner, beat overall merit holder Hargraves by just two chalks, while his team-mate was victorious in a close encounter against Lyn Bolton (Titans), one of two ladies who were playing on Sunday.

The other, Lynda Cadamy (Erin Porters) who had played extremely well on Saturday, lost out on 15 to Keggen, with the fourth player through being Dave McCabe, who overcame team-mate Alec Taylor, both from Seven-Up.

In the semis Moore and Kelly fought bowl for bowl in their clash until 11 across, but then the victor ran out on a mark, which he played particularly well.

The other game was a much closer affair, after 15 ends and with six on the card to start, it was all level at 16 apiece.

Then at 19-17 in favour of the Angels player, and with his opponent McCabe on for two, which would have levelled things up, he played with pace and after a good contact scored one himself to be within touching distance of a place in the final.

Apart from the start when Keggen fired and killed off the first end, the deciding encounter was a cautious affair and with 11 ends on the card Moore was 9-14 down, all the points having been scored as singles.

The victor then upped his game and took eight of the last 11 ends to run out 21-17 and go one better than his runners-up spot back in 2013, making him just the eighth different winner in 15 seasons.

Results – quarter-finals: Lyn Bolton 18, Alan Moore 21; Stefan Kelly 21, Glynn Hargraves 19; Alec Taylor 14, Dave McCabe 21; Matthew Keggen 21, Lynda Cadamy 15. Semi-finals: Moore 21 Kelly 11; McCabe 18 Keggen 21. Final: Moore 21 Keggen 17.

Just a few days earlier the midweek round robin had a gang of 35 split into two sections, with the trio of Shirley Whelan, Pauline Worrall and Bernard Thackrah taking the spoils by one point ahead of Allan Kennaugh, Derek Cadamy and Tricia Bull, while in third it was Erwin Gelling, Mike Ware and Mike Skelly.

One point separated the doubles group also, with Roy Moore and Ken Clarke pipping Sylvia Kennaugh and Joy Stephens, and they were followed by Lynda Wilson and Bert Quayle.

This weekend will see the final two days of the winter season, beginning with a round robin on Saturday, followed 24 hours later by the Best versus Rest event and prize presentations.

Proceedings will begin at 1pm and taking part in the latter will be the league champions, Mean Machine (Best) and the individual team merit winners, who make up the Rest team.

Representing the challengers will be Mike Thomas (Parkers) captain; Lyn Bolton (Titans); Ady Skinner (Mooragh Lakers); Margie Tasker (Louie’s Angels); Nigel Thomas (Seven-Up); Derek Allen (Erin Porters); Rosie Winckle (Bowl Rollers); Doug Allan (Govags); Tom Collins (Bits n Bobs); John Alderson (Castletown Cannons) and Tracy Moore (Castletown Corkers).

The champions will be joined by Jenny Moore, ladies merit winner, and Matthew Keggen, as club championship runner-up, the remainder of the team are yet to be confirmed.

League prizes are awarded down to fifth and from the quarter-finals onwards in the club championship, so if those concerned can be in attendance to collect their awards it would be much appreciated.

Even after an extremely wet winter, the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club league programme was completed on schedule, for the first time in the last nine seasons.

Winter after winter the Club has played fixture catch-up over the final weekends, but remarkably no such problem this time, helped by a good green and members playing in some difficult conditions.

Saturday’s action, which was held in perfect weather, involved three teams who all improved their averages, but remained where they were in the overall standings.

The session could have seen Titans move up a position, but they could only afford to drop three points, which they did in the opener against Castletown Corkers, so this left them needing a maximum score from the final outing.

Govags then joined in and began with success against their southern opponents Corkers, before taking four games off Titans and deny them that fourth spot, but they missed out on victory by the closest of margins in the all-important points tally.

Results for Saturday, March 5: Titans 123 (4) Castletown Corkers 98 (2), Castletown Corkers 109 (2) Govags 116 (4), Govags 107 (4) Titans 108 (2).

Two weekends remaining to complete this 15^th season of outdoor winter bowls, will start with the club championship and with an entry over 40 it has been decided to stage the competition over this Saturday and Sunday with a 1pm start.

Looking further ahead, two more players have been added to the team merit winners list and they are Lyn Bolton (Titans) and Tracy Moore (Castletown Corkers).

A change of procedure this year regarding the Rest team to take on the Best, in that if a team winner is not available, then a representative will be found from the overall merit table, rather than the second placed player in a particular team.

So first reserve will be Ady Skinner from Mooragh Lakers, as team-mate Rob Monk will be replacing Jenny Moore who has been elevated to the Best as Ladies Merit winner.

The end of season event will also kick-off at 1pm and take place on Sunday, March 20, raffle prizes along with support for the participants, would be very much appreciated.

Two more round robins either side of last Saturday saw relatively small groups, the first having 21, played as triples and being won by Mike Skelly, Jeff Wilson and Tricia Bull.

The other had 22, which was split into two sets of doubles, with those topping the scores being Philippa Taylor and Peter Kelly, along with Alan Moore and Lil Smith.

Two days of perfect weather were a welcome relief for members of the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club as two of the main awards were settled on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Seven-Up had let a 21-point advantage slip over the past month and could only hope that nearest rivals Mean Machine would suffer the same fate.

Meanwhile waiting in the wings for a mistake from either side, or perhaps both, were current leaders on average, Mooragh Lakers who had finished their fixtures.

It was a perfect start by the chasers as they racked up a maximum and left their opponents Govags trailing behind on a total of just 64.

Bottom side Castletown Cannons then entered the action, but could not stop Govags notching up a four games to two success.

Cannons next had the tough task of facing Seven-Up in the final encounter of the session and they did manage to win one game and in turn make things a little easier for Mean Machine who were playing 24 hours later.

The winners had however done enough to move back above Lakers by just one point and therefore guarantee at worst runners-up spot for a third time.

Results for Saturday, February 27: Seven-Up 126 (6) Govags 64 (0), Govags 115 (4) Castletown Cannons 96 (2), Castletown Cannons 79 (1) Seven-Up 121 (5).

Sunday’s trio of teams included Louie’s Angels and the big question at the beginning, was could they do to Mean Machine, what they had done to Seven-Up just a week or so earlier and deny them the title.

First the seven-time champions had to overcome Bits n Bobs, knowing they could only lose 21 points in order to retain the trophy, and at the end of play in the first outing, they had dropped six to leave them with a reduced margin.

But who could possibly have predicted the next result as the champions wrapped up the league in emphatic style, whitewashing the Angels to record their eighth success in nine seasons.

Angels then had to pick themselves up in order to notch up enough points to secure fourth spot and although they dropped seven against Bits n Bobs it will take an almost prefect afternoon from Titans to overhaul them.

At the conclusion, the top three teams were separated by only 17 points; after racking up over 7700 between them in this 15th season of outdoor winter bowls.

Results for Sunday, February 28: Bits n Bobs 89 (1) Mean Machine 120 (5), Mean Machine 126 (6) Louie’s Angels 91 (0), Louie’s Angels 119 (5) Bits n Bobs 88 (1).

Receiving the Derek Killey Memorial Trophy as overall merit winner was Glynn Hargraves (Mean Machine), winning it for the third time, repeating his success in 2005 and 2013.

Second place went to Jenny Moore (Mooragh Lakers), next came Mike Thomas (Parkers), Alan Moore and Stefan Kelly (both Meanies), with Rob Monk (Lakers) making up the top six.

Other team merit winners, who will hopefully be appearing in the Rest team when they take on the champions at the Club’s final event on Sunday, March 20, are: Margy Tasker (Angels), Derek Allen (Porters), Nigel Thomas (Seven-Up), Rosie Winckle (Bowl Rollers), Doug Allan (Govags), Tom Collins (Bits n Bobs) and John Alderson (Cannons).

Two more to be confirmed are Titans, being led by Lyn Bolton and Castletown Corkers, for which Rob Sayle is the current leader.

Entries are still open for the club championship, which will be held on Saturday, March 12, but in the meantime the first weekend round robin for a few months will take place this Sunday at 1pm.

The regular midweek session attracted an entry of 32 and was split into two gangs. In the doubles Barbara Young and Roma Ware were victorious, just ahead of Mike Skelly and Derek Allen.

Triples were on the agenda for the remainder and Derek Clarke, Jean Thackrah and Shirley Corrin led them home, with second place going to Lil Smith, Pauline Worrall and Ken Clarke.

The race for the title in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club was thrown on its head after the latest weekend of action – or in one case a lack of it.

Players arrived at the venue on Saturday to a surface with some wet patches, but with the weather forecast showing it to clear up, the games were started, but not before one of the teams decided not to participate due to the conditions.

Castletown Cannons headed home without playing and under the impression that if possible their games would be re-scheduled at a later date. This situation has yet to be resolved.

So let’s assume the two games will be played at some point before the end of the season and report on how things panned out over the two days.

On a green that was improving all the time, the top two sides went head to head and the victors were in no mood to let go of their crown, as Mean Machine closed the points deficit on leaders Seven-Up by 16 and put themselves back in the race, trailing by just seven.

Things then went from bad to worse for Seven-Up as they could only record a total of 104 against Louie’s Angels, who themselves dropped only six points in their own little battle to hold on to fourth.

So on averages at the end of Saturday, the Meanies had leap-frogged their rivals onto 116.4, compared to 116 for Sevens, however there was another session to follow 24 hours later…

When I arrived on Sunday, things were already on the move to get play started, which was perhaps a little surprising, having left a very wet north of the Island.

Play did get underway on time, only for the rain to hit Douglas not too long into the afternoon and turn the playing surface into a rather large puddle.

I now realise why Mooragh Lakers play under this team name, as they splashed their way through the water to two maximums and as a result, head the table on an average of 116.7 – well for a few days at least.

With their campaign over they await the four or possibly five results to be settled by the two sides directly behind them.

Also completing their schedule were Erin Porters and they also hit a 126 to take the total so far to 16 and in doing so hold on to sixth spot, squashed between Titans and Parkers.

Bowl Rollers were also competing and began with victory against Bits n Bobs, before going down to the Lakers, therefore finishing with an average just over 100 points, however Bits n Bobs slipped down a position behind Govags, not helped by them being a player short.

Results for Saturday, February 20: Mean Machine 117 (5) Seven-Up 101 (1), Seven-Up 104 (2) Louie’s Angels 120 (4). Two outstanding fixtures: Angels and Mean Machine versus Castletown Cannons.

Results for Sunday, February 21: Bowl Rollers 114 (4) Bits n Bobs 79 (2), Erin Porters 87 (0) Mooragh Lakers 126 (6), Bits n Bobs 64 (0) Erin Porters 126 (6), Mooragh Lakers 126 (6) Bowl Rollers 66 (0).

One thing decided was the destination of the Geoff Osborn memorial trophy, which was retained by Jenny Moore (Lakers), she cannot be caught by nearest rival Lyn Bolton (Titans), and will finish no worse than second in the overall standings, which is being led by Glynn Hargraves (Mean Machine).

Also confirmed in the top three is Mike Thomas (Parkers) and still looking for fourth is Alan Moore (Meanies), followed closely by teammate Stefan Kelly, the leading junior.

The midweek round robin enjoyed slightly better conditions and attracted an entry of 24, split into two groups of doubles, Terry Bates/Sylvia Kennaugh and John Lightfoot/Jordan Cain being the victors.

Just missing out in second were Derek Clarke/Mike Ware and Derek Allen/Tricia Bull.