Just one set of fixtures took place over the weekend in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowls League and it was a perfect afternoon for Parkers in a session that saw all participants improve their averages.

The opening fixture on the card saw Castletown Cannons record a second victory of the campaign and just miss out on a maximum against opponents Bits n Bobs.

The Cannons last recorded this achievement back in December 2013, when the total points was 90, rather than the 126 at present.

Next up seventh placed Parkers kept the good form of the previous weekend going and brushed aside Bowl Rollers to win by a margin of 50 points and notch up their first full-house.

They then took the league maximums total to 13 with a comfortable victory over bottom side Bits n Bobs and in the process crept up behind Govags in the table.

Bowl Rollers have had a slow start by their standards, however they got fired up in the final encounter to defeat Cannons by enough chalks to remain above their challengers in the standings.

Both teams are now separated by an average of just one point – Rollers on 96.5 and Cannons on 95.5.

Results for Saturday, November 24: Bits n Bobs 81 (1), Castletown Cannons 125 (5); Bowl Rollers 76 (0), Parkers 126 (6); Parkers 126 (6), Bits n Bobs 83 (0); Castletown Cannons 99 (2), Bowl Rollers 118 (4).

Two round robins took place either side of the league games and in the midweek session the trio of Cliff Clague, Marg Tasker and Peter Karran took the honours ahead of Jean Thackrah, David Clucas and Trevor Barker.

Doubles was the order of the day in the other gang and it was Derek Allen and Patricia Lenton who topped the scoring in front of Bernard Galka and Mark Kelly.

Sunday’s group saw Steve Parker and Tricia Bull as clear winners in the doubles, with second spot going to Derek Allen and Sue Gawne.

Whilst in the other gang the trio of Jenny Moore, Mavis Franks and Marg Tasker took the spoils ahead of Steve Moore, Bernard Thackrah and Stefan Kelly.

Weather permitting the next weekend round robin will take place on Sunday, December 10.

There is a new team at the top of the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowls League after the latest two days of action and with a change of fourth and fifth positions, it is definitely game on for the title come next March.

Most of the teams competing have players in their ranks that can cause an upset on their day and this was certainly the case on Saturday and resulted in the first loss of the season for early leaders Outsiders.

All went to plan for the top two in their opening encounters, Outsiders dropped only four chalks whilst defeating Castletown Cannons and second placed Mooragh Lakers just eight in a victory over Parkers.

Lakers carried on their good form and just missed out on a full house in their clash with the Cannons; whereas Outsiders slipped to their first defeat at the hands of Parkers who recorded some great individual results to take a memorable victory.

This all left Mooragh Lakers top on an average of 120.2, whilst Outsiders slipped to 119.1, the same as third placed A-Team, who had the weekend off.

Results for Saturday, November 17: Outsiders 122 (5), Castletown Cannons 95 (1); Mooragh Lakers 118 (4), Parkers 98 (2); Parkers 108 (3), Outsiders 104 (3); Castletown Cannons 99 (1), Mooragh Lakers 124 (5).

The second day’s outcomes were pretty much as expected; however the margins in two of the results were perhaps not.

Just three places separated the sides in the opener, when fifth placed Seven-Up were ruthless in a 126 to 69 points defeat of Erin Porters – their first maximum to date.

Having lost both fixtures last time out, Louie’s Angels needed a win to get their challenge back on track and they were pushed all the way by Castletown Corkers, who have yet to record a victory.

Porters then recovered from their earlier set back to notch up a four games to two success over Corkers, who couldn’t quite hit the 100 points mark, but did improve their overall average.

Seven-Up had lost the previous three clashes with teams above them in the table, but this time they clearly had other ideas and beat rivals Louie’s Angels by a comfortable margin of 30 chalks and swap positions with them in the standings.

Results for Sunday, November 18: Erin Porters 69 (0), Seven-Up 126 (6); Louie’s Angels 117 (4), Castletown Corkers 105 (2); Castletown Corkers 95 (2), Erin Porters 108 (4); Seven-Up 120 (4), Louie’s Angels 90 (2).

Once again one of the groups taking part in the midweek round robin had to be settled by a roll-up and taking the honours were Peter Kelly, Derek Allen and Sue Gawne.

Just missing out were the trio of Bernard Galka, Ray Watterson and Pauline Whorral.

There were clear winners in the yellow jack gang with the victors being Jean Thackrah, Kevin Firth and Janet Monk, with second going to Maureen Hamilton, Steph Swift and Caroline Corlett.

Entries are now being taken for the J&M Lee doubles, this is a new competition introduced in memory of the Club’s former president, Jack Lee, who passed away earlier this year. Sadly his wife Margy died a short while afterwards.

The competition, which will be held on Saturday 22 December, will be run as a drawn doubles, with the format yet to be decided. In the meantime raffle tickets are on sale and prizes would be much appreciated. All proceeds will go to the RNLI.

The weather played a major part in proceedings over weekend in the the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League, especially on Saturday with defeats for second placed Louie’s Angels, along with losses for previously unbeaten players.

Heavy rain prior to and during the first session made for tricky conditions, although the playing surface did not show any signs of waterlogging.

First up were Erin Porters taking on Outsiders and the result was close, with just nine points between the two, which went in favour of the leaders to keep their unbeaten run going.

Also in action were the second and third placed sides, however this success went the way of the lower placed outfit after Mooragh Lakers beat Louie’s Angels by a good margin of 20 chalks.

Things didn’t get any easier for the Angels as they next had to take on Outsiders and they could only manage one win in a 121-93 defeat and as a consequence they slipped down the standings into fourth position.

Lakers then matched that winning total when they played Erin Porters and in doing so moved into second spot and closed the gap to the leaders by four down to just seven.

This session saw four players lose their unbeaten starts and along with individuals not taking part for one reason or another, there are only three members to have won all games to date.

Results for Saturday, November 10: Erin Porters 103 (2), Outsiders 112 (4); Louie’s Angels 96 (2), Mooragh Lakers 116 (4); Outsiders 121 (5), Louie’s Angels 93 (1); Mooragh Lakers 121 (5), Erin Porters 87 (1).

Things were much better weather-wise for Sunday afternoon’s participants and two teams left with a maximum apiece and a brace of wins.

Govags were in ruthless form in the opener when they recorded their first full-house of the season at the expense of bottom team Bits n Bobs.

Bowl Rollers were also fired up after notching up two wins last time out and they pushed the A-Team all the way, recording a three-all draw on games, but lost out on points.

Next up Govags and Rollers fought out the closest fixture of the weekend with another draw on games and the westerners triumphant by only four chalks to improve their average to 112.8.

Finally in a rather one-sided clash, the A-Team notched up their third and the league’s tenth maximum score, the unfortunate losers once again were Bits n Bobs.

Results for Sunday, November 11: Bits n Bobs 72 (0), Govags 126 (6); Bowl Rollers 84 (3), A-Team 108 (3); Govags 110 (3), Bowl Rollers 106 (3); A-Team 126 (6), Bits n Bobs 66 (0).

Two groups of six triples competed in the latest midweek round robin, with the closest outcome being in the yellow jack gang with the top three being decided by a roll-up.

Three trios finished on the same total and eventually taking the honours were the threesome of Steve Parker, Rita Callister and Gill Jopson, who edged out Ray Watterson, Trevor Barker and Tricia Bull. Just missing out in third were Sefton Dent, Kevin Firth and Peter Karran.

The other group was a little bit more open with the team of David Clucas, Bryan Corner and Bernie McPhee winning ahead of Doug Allan, Judy Kelly and Steve Crampton.

Outsiders remain as early leaders of the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League after the latest two weekends, however the margin has been reduced to an average of just half a point.

Teams occupying places in the lower half of the table competed in the first of three sessions to catch up with and recording two wins apiece were Parkers and Bowl Rollers, the first of the campaign for the Rollers.

This took place during an afternoon where sides played their opponents twice, with Parkers inflicting two defeats on Castletown Cannons, the first by a margin of 15 and in the second they increased the gap to 22.

Bowl Rollers meanwhile went agonisingly close to maximum scores in both encounters with basement side Bits n Bobs, dropping only five chalks along the way.

Results for Saturday, October 27: Castletown Cannons 103 (2), Parkers 118 (4); Bits n Bobs 86 (1), Bowl Rollers 124 (5); Parkers 116 (3), Castletown Cannons 94 (3); Bowl Rollers 123 (5), Bits n Bobs 83 (1).

Three of the leading five took part in the following days action, with two of them leaving happier than the other and as a result the title contenders group could well have been reduced to four.

First up were leaders Outsiders against fifth placed Seven-Up and the outcome saw the table toppers notch up an important victory by a margin of 11 points.

Currently third are Mooragh Lakers and they began with a score of 123 against Castletown Corkers, before recording an impressive win over Seven-Up, dropping just five chalks and increasing their average to 120.8.

Corkers may well have won a game in their opener, but could not prevent Outsiders from notching up a third maximum to date and keep their noses in front of second placed Louie’s Angels.

Results for Sunday, October 28: Outsiders 116 (4), Seven-Up 105 (2); Mooragh Lakers 123 (5), Castletown Corkers 86 (1); Castletown Corkers 76 (0), Outsiders 126 (6); Seven-Up 108 (2), Mooragh Lakers 121 (4).

Just one group of fixtures were scheduled last weekend and it was up to third placed A-Team to match the challengers as they endeavour to hang onto their crown.

They dropped just four points whilst defeating Parkers, before they racked up their second maximum of the season at the expense of Castletown Cannons to become the first team to win their opening six fixtures.

Govags also beat the southern outfit, but then went down by a margin of 20 points against Parkers and now have them breathing down their necks, with less than a point separating the pair on average.

Results for Sunday, November 4: Govags 118 (5), Castletown Cannons 105 (1); A-Team 122 (5), Parkers 93 (1); Parkers 112 (3), Govags 92 (3); Castletown Cannons 76 (0), A-Team 126 (6).

Two midweek round robins attracted good entries; the first had 53, which was divided into three gangs.

The yellow triples winners were Gill Malpass, Kevin Firth and Jenny Moore/James Teare, the latter two sharing the games. Also victorious in their groups were the threesome of Bob Berry, Mike Kelly and Jo Smith, along with the pairing of Janet Monk and Steve Parker.

A slightly smaller entry of 42 took part in last week’s gathering, with the successful gangs being Sefton Dent and Bernie McPhee (doubles); Mark Kelly, Steve Parker and Carol Kaye (yellow triples); and Alan Phair, Doug Allan and Jeff Wilson (black triples).

There were no major surprises in the final results over the latest weekend of play in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League with the top five sides in the table opening the gap over their rivals.

The biggest benefactors on the average points front were Castletown Cannons, they may well have lost their first fixture, but will have been pleased to take one game from opponents Seven-Up.

They followed this with a comprehensive victory over stablemates Castletown Corkers and the 115 chalks scored saw them climb above their rivals and also pushed non-playing Bowl Rollers into the bottom two.

Parkers were the fourth team competing and they began with a fives games to one success against Corkers, but then came unstuck against Seven-Up who are pushing hard to remain in contention with the four teams above them.

Results for Saturday, October 20: Castletown Cannons 82 (1), Seven-Up 122 (5); Parkers 113 (5), Castletown Corkers 90 (1); Seven-Up 123 (5), Parkers 82 (1); Castletown Corkers 84 (2), Castletown Cannons 115 (4).

Sunday’s participants were all occupying positions in the top seven in the table, two of them still unbeaten heading into this third weekend.

Opening the session were Erin Porters and Govags and they fought out a contest that was decided by the close margin of just four points in favour of the Porters.

Undefeated Louie’s Angels and A-Team then went head to head in a fixture that was probably the best so far this season, with the lowest losing players reaching 17.

The A-Team came out of top by just five points in a 120 to 115 result, but I’m sure the victors will have been more than happy to take their second victory against top-flight opposition having beaten Seven-Up the previous weekend.

Following this the two victors faced up to one another, with Porters Wayne Roberts preventing a maximum and putting last week’s newspaper headline on hold for a little while longer!

The final encounter saw Angels get back to winning ways with victory over Govags and this time it was Bryan Corner who prevented a whitewash, inflicting defeat on another of the former league merit winners.

Results for Sunday, October 21: Erin Porters 112 (4), Govags 108 (2); Louie’s Angels 115 (2), A-Team 120 (4); A-Team 118 (5), Erin Porters 98 (1); Govags 104 (1), Louie’s Angels 121 (5).

Having been in action just the one weekend, Outsiders lead the way on an average of 126, followed by Angels on 123; Mooragh Lakers 119.5; A-Team 117.8 and Seven-Up on 116. I think the battle for league honours come next March will be between this five, with the remainder battling for sixth place downwards.

Last week’s round robin session had the biggest entry to date, with 52 players being split into two groups of triples and one doubles.

Topping the yellow jack gang were Ray Watterson, Brian Lindsay and Tricia Bull, with second being taken by Ken Karran, Sue Gawne and Andy Sykes.

The other triples group had a close outcome with Derek Allen, Bernard Galka and Trevor Barker taking the honours, just one point ahead of Cliff Clague, Sefton Dent and Joy Stephens.

Finally in the doubles, Margaret Tasker and Mark Kelly teamed up to win ahead of Lil Smith and Derek Clarke.