The final of the inaugural Club Team Championship was held on Friday evening under the floodlights at Noble’s Park in front of a good crowd. Marown reached the final after sailing through their group games, whilst Onchan came through a tough group, sealing their place in the final after seeing off South Ramsey with a convincing win in their final group game. Marown started the final as favourites, and with the format being five singles games and three doubles games the draw would be crucial to Onchan’s hopes of pulling off an upset.

First off for Marown was Matthew Keggen winning 21-12 against Colin Spence, with Spence staging a mini-comeback after being 4-16 down before losing out. The first doubles game off was Paul Kelly and Neil Withers who were up against Kevin Quirk and Peter Slinger with the Marown men seeing off the Onchan pair 21-14 in a high quality game. Third game off was another doubles game with Harry Barton and John Kelly performing well to beat Mark Kelly and Edward Carlyle 21-10. The last game off from the first half of the match was another Marown win with Brian Kelly beating Bernie McPhee 21-18, which was the closest game of the night. At the halfway stage, the chalks were 84-54 with Marown holding a 30 point lead.

Fifth game off on the night was Peter Kelly who helped increase Marown’s lead to an unassailable 44 chalks thanks to a 21-7 win over Mike Alexander. Onchan replied with the biggest doubles win of the night with Jordan Cain and Rob Monk playing the short lengths well to seal a 21-8 victory against the experienced pairing of Phil Kelly and John Gelling. With the match now secured with Marown having scored enough chalks in the two games left on the green, Onchan then recorded their second win of the night with Matthew Quirk holding off a strong challenge from Juan Killip to record a 21-17 win. The last match of the night was between Colin Kelly and Neil Dunwell with Kelly recovering from 2-8 down to eventually win 21-15. Marown won by 33 chalks (151-118) winning 6-2 on games.

The presentation was made by Association Press Officer Glynn Hargraves who congratulated Marown on a deserved win, whilst also thanking Noble’s Bowling Club for hosting the final and providing refreshments. Marown’s Neil Withers then accepted the winners shield and also congratulated his team and thanked their supporters. With his Association hat on Withers then gave a bit of background to emphasise why the competition was introduced, with the idea of increasing involvement from across the teams within a club and also to help create a better atmosphere around the green.

Marown C were crowned champions of Ellan Vannin Fuels division three in their winner takes all game at home to Ballaugh B with a superb 9-1 win in front of a 60 plus crowd to gain promotion to division two in style.

Leading the way for the Crosby men was captain Stephen Rundle who dug in and kept his composure to see his game out 21-19 against John Kneen. The Marown men’s nerves would have been helped further winning three games 21-16 with Darren Kerruish, Dan Smith and Kevin Kelly beating Tony Quine, Phil Quayle and Fred Waggett respectively.

Jamie Joughin beat John Looney 21-5, with Karl Parker winning 21-9 against Percy Faragher. Steve Wilson had a fairly comfortable 21-14 win against Dickie Watson. John Bolton spared the whitewash for Ballaugh with a 21-14 win over Carey Dewhirst.

This is a great achievement for the team and indeed the whole club, who have introduced new players into the game, with this continuing this season with Kevin Kelly and Karl Parker taking the game up recently with both players contributing to the overall success of the team.

Castletown C finished in third spot, but may have been left wondering what might been having finished just 10 points off the top, with their cause not helped by having to give 15 walkovers to the opposition during the season, which will have cost them extra points on individual wins and the aggregate with having to give 21 chalks away before the match has started.

Peel D hosted Douglas C recording a 7-3 home win, with young Ryan Tate turning in a good performance to win 21-8 against James King, with Dad Steve Tate not to be outdone winning 21-6 against Les Quayle.

Onchan C travelled north over the mountain to take on South Ramsey D to record a good 2-8 away win. Home winners were Ian Moore who has secured the individual merit in division three following a fine season winning 18 games from 20 played, whilst younger brother Jay Moore beat Erwin Gelling 21-15. The home team performed well despite the defeat with Steve Kelly losing 17-21 to Kelvin McNicholl, skipper James Moore, Matthew Corkill and Richard Davies all losing 19-21 to David Clucas, Graham Atkinson and Brian Kelly respectively, whilst Franz ten Donkelaar just lost 20-21 to Denis Maxwell.

Finch Hill B were another team to end the season on a high with a 0-10 away win against bottom of the pile Douglas D who were forced to give three walkovers to the Finch Hill men.

Noble’s A sealed their place in division one for the 2019 season with a 6-4 away win against Finch Hill A, which was enough on the night to seal the title by six points. This concludes a successful season for the Noble’s men following their Rayner Plate victory earlier in the season. Long time leader in the merit chase Dave Pease suffered a 19-21 defeat to Tony Epifani.

Castletown B finished second in the table suffering a disastrous 3-7 home loss to Peel C, who managed to do the double over the southerners with these two results ultimately costing Castletown the league.

Port St Mary C took the bragging rights over their B Team with a 6-4 win, taking the aggregate by just five chalks to upset the higher ranked team.

Port Erin B hosted North Ramsey B with both teams missing a player the score ended 4-5 to the northerners. The visitors just missed out on an extra three points with Barry Teare and Gary Lenton losing out 19-21, whilst Alex Yates lost 20-21 to Alan Crebbin.

Ballaugh A put their away day woes to one side to brush aside Noble’s B with a resounding 1-9 win. John Keenan sealed the individual merit trophy in division two with a 21-15 win, capitalizing on the loss of Dave Pease.

Fourth placed Peel B hosted third placed Onchan B with the westerners unable to overtake Onchan they could have drawn level with them if they were to secure a maximum 10-0 win. The Peel men did manage to secure a good 7-3 win to end the season just three points behind Onchan, which also allowed them to finish three points ahead of Ballaugh A.