Men’s Player of the Month: Bob Clark – South Ramsey

Ladies Player of the Month: Jenny Moore – South Ramsey

Under 21’s Player of the Month: Sam Colquitt – Noble’s 

The men’s pick went to Bob Clark who impressed in a host of competitions. Clark won the pre-festival Autumn Shield prevailing in a field of 96 to get his festival week off to a good start. Clark also picked up the Festival Men’s Doubles title with South Ramsey teammate Glynn Hargraves, then reached finals day of the men’s main event before losing out in the quarter finals to Callum Wraight.

On the Sunday following the festival Bob won the Wilfrid Quayle Mixed Doubles at Castletown for a second successive year, this time partnering Hannah Drewett. For South Ramsey Clark won all three games, to finish the season with 19 wins from 21 games played, only missing the season’s opening fixture away to Castletown on his old stomping ground. His most impressive individual result during the month was a resounding 21-9 victory over Marown captain Paul Dunn in the final of the Mixed Team Championship with a solid performance as he helped the Team retain the trophy.

The Ladies title was an obvious choice with this being awarded to Jenny Moore, who went undefeated in the league winning 22 games from 22 played. Jenny started the month winning the Festival for a third time, then picked up a sixth successive Manx Masters title a little over a week later. Jenny also shone in the Mixed Team Championship final for South Ramsey inflicting a 21-7 defeat on Paul Kelly to seal the victory. Jenny then travelled to the U.K. to compete in the Champion of Champions on Sunday 1^st October, whilst this does creep into the following month it is worth a mention as there isn’t a Player of the Month award for October. Moore swept aside all before her beating top quality opposition throughout the day to lift the ‘Holy Grail’ of bowls making history to become the first Manx Lady to pick up the title.

Sam Colquitt picked up the Junior award thanks to winning the Junior Manx Masters Title for the first time at South Ramsey beating clubmate Alex Hampson 21-18 in a good quality final. Sam who had previously won the Young Manx Masters five years earlier put out pre-tournament favourite Madison McMullan with a brilliant performance winning 21-16 in the semi-final. In addition to this Sam paired up with Jo Smith to pick up a convincing 21-15 victory over Debbie Leece and Juan Killip in the Club Team Championship, whilst also seeing off David Manley 21-12 in the league for Noble’s D.

Marown Bowling Club hosted the Juan Kelly Cup, with the competition now in its seventh year 44 pairs taking part as the curtain was brought down on the 2023 season.

There were some interesting pairings making use of the handicap system which was played over two qualifying nights (Monday and Tuesday), with four pairs qualifying each night to qualify for the finals night on Wednesday evening.

The format was any combination doubles, played over 15 ends with ends 5, 10 and 15 played as ‘power’ ends with the points scored counting double. The pairs were given a handicap based on their rankings in the Men’s and Ladies game. If scores were tied after 15 ends a one bowl shootout would take place to decide the winner.

There were some high-profile casualties on both qualifying nights, as some of the more fancied pairings made an early exit. For finals night a re-draw took place to determine who the pairings would play on the night, with a good mixture of high and low handicaps still in the competition. The excellent floodlights came into good use for the duration of the competition.

Losing out at the quarter final stage were Marown’s Martha Butler and Brian Kelly (+7) 14-25 to Stevie Kelly (Peel) and Paul Dunn (+2) (Marown), Colin Kelly and Juan Killip (+2) lost out 11-16 to fellow home greeners Jayne Smith and Lyn Bolton (+4).

In the other half of the draw brothers Tom and Kevin Kelly (+2) were beaten 14-22 by Paula Firth (Noble’s) and son Nick Firth (+8) who plies his trade for Douglas, whilst the Noble’s father and son pairing of Andy and Lee Greggor (+8) lost out 13-23 to Castletown’s Chris Lever and David Quayle (+4).

The first semi-final was a big win for Kelly and Dunn who beat Smith and Bolton 25-10 to go through to the final. The other semi-final was a good game between Lever and Quayle, who were up against the Firth’s was edged by the latter pair as the game had just a chalk separating the pairs with three ends left to play, with the score 20-19. A strong finish from Paula and Nick ensured they went through to the final.

The final got underway with Kelly and Dunn having to give a six start to Paula and Nick, however this advantage was wiped in just two ends to put the score level at 8-8. Kelly and Dunn shown their dominance with a strong performance to keep their opponents down to three scoring ends, with Kelly finding a tricky mark on the riverbank side of the green to see the Peel/Marown combination runout with a 28-12 victory.

At the conclusion of play the presentation was made by Marown Club President Peter Kelly, who thanked Juan Kelly for once again sponsoring the competition, the Ladies for the refreshments over all three nights, everyone who entered, and all those who came to support. Juan Kelly’s son Colin was then introduced to present the prizes.

The 2023 BCGBA Mel Evans MBE Centenary Mixed Pairs was held on Saturday 7th October at Owley Wood Recreation Club, Barrymore Road, Weaverham.

The first games of the day got underway at 10:00 with South Ramsey pair Elaine Moore and Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey) facing Maggie and Rob Swift (North Lancs & Fylde) on the number two green with the IOM pair recovering from a slow start to build up a 19-12 lead. Their opponents scored seven chalks to level the game up at 19-19. On the following end counting for three and lying game a good bowl saved two. With Elaine and Glynn 20-19 up a measure settled the following end to put the score at 20-20. On the deciding end a good lead bowl from Maggie was unbeaten as Moore and Hargraves agonisingly lost out 20-21.

Another South Ramsey pairing featured on green two with Gill Dixon and Stefan Kelly up against Olivia and Max Jefferson (North Midlands) with the game finely poised at 11-11, before the North Midlands pair went on to claim a 21-14 victory.

On Green One there was better success for Marown duo Lyn Bolton and Peter Jones who swept aside their opponents Janet Cross and Eddie Gowen (Cheshire) 21-7. A third South Ramsey pair lost out as Jenny Moore and James Teare were beaten 9-21 by Emma Ribbons & Jeff Brown (Potteries and District).

In the second round Bolton and Jones switched to Green One as they edged a close encounter with Jodie Dickinson and Tom Wiltshire (South Yorkshire) 21-18 to go through to the next round.

In the quarter finals Lyn and Peter made light work of their opponents as they beat Louise Ollerton and David Molyneux (Lancashire) 21-8 to book their place in the semi-final.

At the semi-final stage Bolton and Jones struggled to get in as they came up against Yorkshire pair Jasmine Kendal and Craig Gant, as they were beaten 6-21. Kendal and Grant did go on to win the competition as they beat Sophie Rigney and Tom Eccles (Greater Manchester) 21-19, with the Marown pair being able to console themselves as they lost to the eventual winners.

On Sunday South Ramsey were competing in the World Club Championship at the same venue as the Mixed Pairs the previous day as they played on Green One. South Ramsey had a tough day on a tricky, yet interesting green as they had just one winner against Yorkshire team Thongsbridge, a team littered with top players. David Bradford was the lone winner as he beat Craig Gant 21-19, with Bob Clark losing out to the same score to Adam Jones. Next highest scorers were James Teare who lost out 16-21 to James Davison, whilst Jordan Cain was last game off the green as he was beaten to the same score by Richard Jackson. The overall score was 166-97, as Thongsbridge ended up going through to Finals Day at Heaton Park in Manchester this weekend as they went on to beat Bradfield (South Yorkshire) in the qualifying game by 20 chalks 160-140.

South Ramsey bowler Jenny Moore put the icing on the cake of a superb season on Sunday, winning the Holy Grail in Crown Green Bowls, the BCGBA (British Crown Green Bowling Association) Champion of Champions title at Monks Sports and Social Club in Warrington, as the 34-year-old wrote her name into Manx and UK bowls history. 

This season, Moore has been in fine form showing her absolute dominance in the local game having won her sixth Manx Championship, the Manx Masters for the sixth successive time, the Isle of Man September Festival – with two previous Festival tittles under her belt, the Jordan Cup, and went unbeaten throughout the entire ladies’ league season winning 22 games out of 22 played.

Moore representing South Ramsey qualified for the Champion of Champions through winning the Ladies Manx Championship and was a double qualifier through winning the Isle of Man September Festival. Jenny was in the mix with 15 other County Merit winners, whilst the rest of the field was made up by those who had won some of the games biggest competitions that were played throughout the season. 

At the start of play, there was a field of 32 top players from across the UK and with Moore having previously picked up the British Senior Merit in 2021, she would have fancied her chances to reach the latter stages in this event.

Heavy rain early in the morning led to a slightly delayed start of the competition. In the first round, this proved to be her toughest game of the day when she faced Sharon Tatem (Burton & District County Winner) winning 21-18 after recovering from a slow start, before finding her groove to advance to the next round. 

In the second round, Jenny faced Sarah Edmondson who was the North Lancs & Fylde County Merit Winner, with Moore taking a comfortable 21-10 win. 

So, to the quarter finals Jenny was up against Emily Kernick who qualified for the event by winning the Ladies Fleetwood Festival, and this resulted in a straightforward 21-13 victory for Jenny who advanced to the semi-finals. 

At this stage, Jenny took on Shannon Kernick who is the sister of Emily Kernick, with Shannon also being a double qualifier for the event having won the Norden Open singles & Ladies Autumn Waterloo. Jenny won this game to an even bigger score claiming her only single figure win of the day with a 21-7 victory, to secure her place in the final. 

The final saw Jenny up against Linda Williams, Wales County Merit winner who is well known on the circuit, having picked up more than one Waterloo title. Williams is well-known for preferring a longer length, however this wouldn’t phase Moore in the slightest. Having been in good form throughout the day, Jenny made a strong start to go into a 6-0 lead before Williams got back into the game scoring four chalks to trail by two points with the score at 4-6. 

Moore got back in and managed to build up an 11-5 lead and then extended this further as Williams inexplicably played out her own counting bowl to put Jenny 14-7 up. The Welsh County merit winner then picked up a single followed by a double to put the score at 10-14. 

This proved to be the last points that Williams would pick upin the match, as two great bowls in the corners put Jenny 16-10 up. With Williams determined to play a longer length Jenny played some great bowls to ensure her opponent never got a run in the corners.  

Four successive singles followed with the second in that run being a great last bowl from Jenny. With the score now 20-10 to Moore, a good lead which finished perfectly – six inches behind the jack, this proved to be good enough to secure a 21-10 victory to pick up the Champion of Champions title and with it the £1,000 first prize. 

Jenny was supported on the day with her Mum and Dad watching, along with partner James and their nine-year-old daughter, Blae in what was a proud day for Jenny and the family. Jenny became the first Manx woman to win this title, with surely to be plenty more in the future.

To put this achievement into context Jenny has proved time after time that she is a match for any bowler on the island – man or woman as she become the first Manx woman to win this prestigious trophy. To cap off a superb day they even managed to make the boat back in time.