Monthly Archives: July 2016
Ladies’ over 60’s Tuesday 12 July
It was unfortunate that Douglas could only field four players against Port St Mary A in the Trend sponsored ladies’ over 60’s league on Tuesday 12 July, allowing the league leaders to add another maximum to their portfolio. Castletown are fighting hard to keep up with the leaders, and dropped just ten points against Port St Mary B. The featured game of the match saw Chris Holland lose out 20-21 to Marie Ashurst. Onchan and Peel finished level on games, but wins to single figures by Joyce Kelly and Mary Moffatt. gave the visitors a win on points while Villa and Marown also ended level on games, despite Villa being a player short, but that gave Marown the advantage on points. Port Erin put up a strong performance at Ballaugh where Ann Gale and Brenda Bowyer, who edged out Carol Kaye 21-20, were the two winners for the home side
Ladies’ League Friday 15 July
Mooragh Park had three winners against Port St Mary on Friday 15 July, Rosemary Quirk together with Helen Martin and Janet Monk who both won to 20 against Ann Maddrell and Jayne Kneen respectively. With five wins to single figures the home side came away with a convincing win. Philippa Taylor was the lone winner for Peel Sunset at South Ramsey, winning to single figures, However with two 20’s from Joyce Kelly and Mary Moffatt and a 19 from Pat Robertson, Peel managed to amass a respectable total. It was close at Nobles, where the home side won 6-3 on games, but with Sue Peach and Hannah Drewett reaching 20 against Lin Ruscoe and Rebecca Teare their advantage on points was only 3. Port Erin dropped just seven points against Onchan who could only field seven players, while Douglas had a convincing win over Purt le Moirrey with Chris Holland and Tracy Moore being the two winners for the visitors. Ballaugh had a fruitful journey to Marown, winning six games, three of them to single figures.
Ladies’ League Wednesday 13 July
Castletown were in ruthless form against Onchan in their match played in May, re-arranged from Wednesday 13 July in the C Tarlteon Hodgson sponsored ladies’ league, winning all nine games, four of them to single figures, but were unable to make up any ground on league leaders, Port St Mary, who came away on Wednesday with a full house against Douglas. Peel Sunset were another team to pass the 180 point mark, winning seven games against Purt le Moirrey, whose two winners were Linda Dawson and Gill Aughton. South Ramsey just had the better of hosts Port Erin, winning 5-4 on games, and a lead of seven points. Lynda Cadamy fought well to reach 19 against Elaine Moore, while in reply Shelley Kennish lost out 20-21 to Jackie Elliott. Although going down 4-5 on games, Ballaugh managed to come out of their match with Nobles with a 15 point win, the game of the match being Lin Ruscoe’s 21-20 win over Ellie Faragher.
South Ramsey March On
Despite the miserable weather last week things are really hotting up at the top of Ellan Vannin Fuels Men’s Division One.
Leaders South Ramsey A continued to turn up the heat with another strong showing winning 9-1 at home against Nobles A. With ten games to go the northerners must now be firm favourites to take their first ever Division one title and etch their names in to the history books.
Marown A are their nearest rivals only two points back and whilst they will fancy their chances they need to start getting their best eight players on the green if they want to mount a serious challenge.
This week is a great time to start with South sitting out this week they have the chance to go top and put serious pressure on the league leaders. It won’t be easy as they host a tricky North Ramsey A team who are capable of causing one or two surprises but a big result for the Crosby men here really would put the cat amongst the pigeons.
Onchan A continue to make third place their own and chances of a spirited fight back seem to be waning week by week, but this is also their chance to strike. They have an outside chance of a maximum against Finch Hill A this week and need to take it and start closing the gap on the leaders one point at a time.
Fourth places Port St Mary A hosted fifth place Douglas A last week and as you would expect things were pretty close. Both teams secured four games apiece with Port taking the victory thanks to a pretty convincing aggregate win 155-131. It was a pretty solid away performance by the Villa men who can take heart from a couple of great escapes late on in the match to secure their four points.
Castletown A have found themselves in a really rich vein of form for the last couple of weeks and another really impressive win, 6-4 away from home against North Ramsey A, sees them comfortably in sixth place only five points behind Douglas. Town have another great chance of a win this week as they host local rivals Port Erin A and if they do manage to capitalise it really will have been a good mini-run for them.
The battle of the newly promoted teams went the way of South Ramsey B who will be delighted to have left the Villa Marina with a 7-3 win over Douglas B. Victory will taste even sweeter for Ben Dugdale’s northern charges as this win sees them leapfrog North Ramsey into seventh place.
League leaders Peel A really are the consistent team in Division Two this term and another solid showing, winning 8-2 at home against North Ramsey B, sees them extend their lead at the top of the table to eleven points.
Second placed Castletown B are still doing their best to try and secure themselves promotion and a 7-3 result against Peel B sees them put another win safely in the bag. This is a really good result for town against a high flying Peel team who are still in with an outside chance of an historic first and second finish for the Govags.
Town will need to watch themselves however as third placed Marown B are really making a late charge for promotion and are in danger of sneaking past them on the outside as Brian Kelly’s men picked up their second 9-1 win in a row, this time against Ballaugh B.
Top of the table Douglas C and second places Port Erin B exchanged 7-3 results last week, against Peel D and Ballaugh C respectively, to keep the gap at the top static at nine points.
Douglas sit out in two weeks’ time and this week is their last match for a fortnight so Ports best chance at a serious title challenge is to try and eliminate the gap and put themselves on top when the Villa next take to the green, as the week after that they travel to the Villa in a do or die match for them.
Ladies’ over 60’s Thursday 7 July
It was a tense morning at Douglas in the Trend sponsored over 60’s league on Thursday 7 July, where the home side drew on points with Ballaugh despite winning four of the six games, with all the visiting players reaching double figures. In contrast Port Erin finished with a maximum against Mooragh Park whose top scorer was Moira Anderson on 17 points. It must have been a quick match at Nobles where five of the games, two to Nobles and three to Castletown were won to single figures. The exception was the game between Flo Price and Barbara Young which Flo won 21-19.Shirley Whelan spoiled the party for Onchan by denying them a full house, while Villa enjoyed their trip to Port St Mary B, winning 4-2. Dot Mylchreest came close to levelling the games score, reaching 20 against Brenda Williams. Peel Sunset entertained league leaders Port St Mary A in a match that ended level on games. The home team fought well to all reach double figures, which enabled them to take the match by five points.
Ladies’ league Friday 8 July
It was ironic that South Ramsey and Castletown should meet again in the C Tarleton Hodgson ladies’ league the evening after the Jean Kelly final, where Castletown had won by a narrow margin. In this game the visitors had the better of the match on games, 6-3, but the home side claimed victory by just one point. The game between Purt le Moirrey and Port Erin was another which showed the advantage of fighting for every point, as despite the visitors winning 6-3 the home side taking their three games to single figures meant Purt le Moirrey ended with a 12 point advantage. Ballaugh had a successful visit to Onchan, their 6-3 win being converted to a good win on points, while the other three winning teams passed the 180 point mark. Wins to single figures by Joyce Kelly and Lynda Wilson gave Peel Sunset the advantage at Douglas where the rest of the games were very close, two games going all the way, Cath Parker winning one and Wendy Cowin the other. Rosie Winckle was the lone winner for Marown against Port St Mary, who won 4 games to single figures, while top scorers of the night were Nobles against Mooragh Park who had two winners in Maureen Wright and Rosemary Quirk.
Tight At The Top
Its getting tight at the top of Ellan Vannin Fuels Mens league division one with South Ramsey A’s lead at the top being cut to just two points by chasers Marown A.
South had the tricky task of travelling to the Villa Marina to take on the Rayner Shield Final opponents Douglas A and will be delighted to have left with a 7-3 victory which pushes them through the one hundred point barrier as they are now on 106.
Marown A entertained Ballaugh A and a strong 9-1 victory propels them to 104, just two points behind the leaders. They will hope to keep the gap at least static this week, however they travel to Finch Hill who are capable of surprising a few people on their own patch.
Champions Onchan A are finding themselves in the no mans land of third place nine points behind second place and eleven ahead of fourth placed Port St Mary A. They will see a 9-1 win over Douglas B as a good result though and will keep trying to chip away at the gap.
Port have now found their feet and a battling 7-3 win away at South Ramsey B cements their fourth position.
Castletown A are an a charge and have flown up the table thanks to their 10-0 whitewash of Finch Hill A. This is a devastating performance from the men from the Crofts and this will give them some momentum to take into their eagerly anticipated clash with North Ramsey A.
In the only other match of the division Nobles A picked up a much needed 7-3 win over Port Erin A to keep their hopes of top flight survival alive.
Second Division Leaders Peel A still flying high after an 8-2 win over their B team sees them move ten points clear at the top. This result sees the Govag second dtring drop to third in the table.
Castletown B are trying desperately to chase them down in second place however they had to settle for a 5-5 draw at Ballaugh B after winning 5-3 on games but narrowly losing out by just five aggregate points.
Port St Mary B and MarrownB are locked on 73 points each after two strong wins, 8-2 and 9-1 respectively, has really kick started their campaigns. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that one of these teams could earn promotion if they can find top hear for the remainder of the season.
Douglas C continue to occupy top spot in division three and another solid away win 7-3 at Finch Hill B will do their title credentials no harm at all.
Port Erin B managed to close the gap ever so slightly to nine points after they won 8-2 away at Port St Mary D.
Browne Craine & Co Mens Doubles Championship
Thirty pairs made the pilgrimage to Nobles Park on Saturday in search of the first ever Brown Craine Manx Mens Doubles Championship victory, and it was John Kennish and David Bradford who managed to secure the first title.
This is a fantastic new competition putting the spotlight on the doubles format of the game and it obviously captured the imagination of the local players with some of the finest pairings I have ever seen put together.
Kennish & Bradford, who looked the most formidable pairing on paper, proved that sometimes things do go to form as they were ruthless all day. In the final they just had too much for the colourful Bob Clark & Jordan Cain with the former winning 21-13.
The eventual victors stamped their authority on proceedings in the Semi Finals as they took on Colin Kelly & Neil Withers it what potentially looked like a classic encounter. Kennish & Bradford were just too good and ran out comfortable 21-5 winners. Clark & Cain dispatched South Ramsey’s Glynn Hargraves & James Teare 21-12 at the same stage.
Fallers at the quarterfinal stage were Barney Kelly & Stevie Kelly, Mike Hargraves & Ian Kissack, Tim Williams & Ray Maddrell and Stuart Garrett & Ian Moore.
Thanks go to Neil Withers and the Isle of Man association for organising and running the competition but more importantly to Brown Craine who shared in our vision for a premier doubles competition and gave us the support to allow it to happen.
Ladies’ over 60’s Thursday 30 June
There were only five games played in the ladies’ over 60’s on Thursday 30 June as the Mooragh Park team were attending Lilian Slinger’s funeral.
Villa put up a tremendous performance against Nobles winning all six games, three of them to single figures, Lin Ruscoe putting up most resistance reaching 16 against Brenda Williams. All the other matches played finished 5-1 on games, Onchan getting the highest score when dropping a mere three points to Port St Mary B, whose lone winner was Pauline Worrall. Breagle’s Sylvia Maddrell was the fly in the ointment for Castletown who finished with a score of 122, while Margaret Scarffe prevented a white-wash for Marown against Port St Mary A. Peel Sunset were pleased with their performance at Ballaugh where only Voirrey Oates stood in their way towards a full house, but did not, at the time, realise that they would be the lowest scoring winners of the morning !!
Ladies’ over 60’s league Tuesday 28 June
The return matches in the Trend sponsored ladies’ over 60’s league started on Tuesday 28 June. Peel Sunset started with a maximum against Mooragh Park, while Port St Mary A fell just two short against Port St Mary B, Gill Aughton being the lone winner for the “home” side. Nobles and Onchan shared the games in a high-scoring encounter, the featured match-up seeing Sonja Lees just lose out 20-21 to Maureen Payne. Ballaugh found the journey to Marown worthwhile, coming away with four wins, two, by Ann Gale and Brenda Bowyer, to single figures, while Margaret Scarffe took Maureen Trustham all the way before going down 20-21.Villa had a 4-2 advantage on games over Breagle, while Douglas and Port Erin shared the games with the home side having the advantage on points.