The top two teams from last season’s open-age ladies league travelled to the Fylde Coast at the weekend to represent the Island in the BCGBA Club Championship where four groups each of four teams played their initial games on a round robin basis.

IOM runners-up Marown were drawn in Group A on the Belmont green at Fleetwood and got off to a flyer against the Welsh club Vardre Deganwy winning by 100 chalks to 75 with five winners in their ranks – captain Jayne Smith and then came Lynda Cadamy and Lyn Bolton who each recorded wins to 3 though this was bettered by Debbie Leece who won to 2 before Clare Cooper (15-11) rounded off a great team win.  

Next up for the Crosby girls was Springbank BC from Greater Manchester but it proved to be a hard task as it ended with a 77-114 loss with only Jayne and Helen Withers being victorious.

In their third game though they fired back with an excellent win over the Staffordshire side, Dilhorne BC, by 95-90 with the five tail-end players of Lynda, Lyn, Helen, Debbie and Clare gaining superb wins.

However, clawing back from losing one of the qualifying rounds is never easy and so it proved as Springbank qualified for the semi-finals with Marown just behind in a meritorious 2^nd place in their group.

2024 League Champions Castletown played at Cavendish Park in Bispham and started their games with a resounding 120-60 win over Bowling Green from the local North Lancs & Fylde league. The full-house was achieved by Anne Oates, Tracy Moore, Kath Kinley (with a 15-0 win), Chris Price, Hilary Kermode, Kim Foy, Stella Watterson and captain Hannah Drewett. 

Game two against Southport Town was slightly more difficult but wins from Anne, Kath, Hilary, Kim and Stella helped secure a 99-92 victory.

Knowing a win in their third game against the mid-Cheshire side of Winnington Park would secure a semi-final spot the team played arguably their best game of the day with only a 14-15 loss by Kim preventing a maximum chalks win.

So, it was on to Cleveleys WMC for the Town side who were buoyed to see the full Marown squad already at the green to give their support.

What a close semi-final it turned out to be against Springbank BC! 

Anne Oates came off with a win to 9 to keep up her 100% win record for the day but though the next games were close the Town did not have another victory until game 6 when Kim Foy won to 10. 

Hannah Drewett then pulled her team right back into contention with a resounding 15-3 win so suddenly it meant that Stella Watterson had to get to 12 for the team to be victorious.

However, despite a great attempt she ended one chalk short losing 11-15 so with the game drawn on chalks Springbank were deemed the winners having won 5-3 on games and after this narrow scrape they then went on to beat New Mill from Yorkshire in the final.