Monthly Archives: March 2025
League Champions Marown Compete In Club Team Championship in U.K.
Marown A - 2024 Canada Life International League Winners
Photo: Paul DunnThe qualifying stages of the 2025 Club Team Championship took place on Sunday 30th March at four different locations, with 2024 Canada Life International League Winners Marown A playing at Windle Bowling Club in St. Helens.
With an early 9:30 start the Marown men got off to a solid start with an 18 chalk victory (156-138) over Hoghton (North Lancs & Fylde) to pick up two points, dropping just 12 chalks as they won 6-2 on individual games.
Marown’s second game was always going to be tough against King George V (Warwick & Worcester) a side littered with top players as they lost out by 38 chalks (163-125), this time losing out 2-6 on games.
Their final group game ended with a true draw as they tied on 138 chalks with Willenhall Nordley BC (Staffordshire) whilst also drawing 4-4 on games.
Winning the group with three wins and a maximum six points were King George V, who will now go onto the Finals Day on Sunday 27th April. The Marown men finished in second place in the group with three points.
2025 Season Preview
In Division One Marown A (pictured) will be the team to catch having won the league by a comfortable seven points last season. Marown haven’t won back to back league titles since 2002, when they dominated the local game, they will be looking to achieve that feat this season.
South Ramsey A have strengthened with the return of John Kennish, as they look to regain the league title, still have the core of their team from last season, whilst Stefan Kelly continues his travels, is due back a some point during the season, he may turn out for the B Team upon his return.
Castletown A have a new captain onboard with Nathan Hamilton stepping up as he looks to bring the team forward, following their Rayner Shield final defeat last year, with Dave Quayle stepping down it is understood Kieran Krypner will be plying his trade in Division One this year.
The much talked about merger of Port Erin and Port St Mary took place over the winter, with one club having a bowling green and the other club having a higher membership. Three of the Port Erin ‘old guard’ are rumoured to be in the newly formed Breagle Glen A – David Cain, Bernie Durcan and Steve Durcan.
Port St Mary’s Tom Collins has jumped ship and has settled for somewhere closer to home in the North of the Island, as he turns out for North Ramsey A this year, having lost Paul Allison and Steven Waters to golf, with Gary Merrill stepping down to the B team. Collins is a welcome addition with Joe Kneale and Ewan Christian also rumoured to be stepping up to Division One for the Mooragh Park men.
Peel man George Gadsby is A team captain once again, whilst not playing early on this season following his recent surgery he will have to pull in two players, with Peter Greenlees moving on to pastures new as he will be turning out for Marown B.
South Ramsey B are the newly promoted team to Division One, they will have it all to do to stay up, as they have become a bit of a yoyo team over the past few years.
Marown C will be plying their trade in Division Two as they look to make an immediate return to the top flight.
This Division contains no fewer three A Teams with Noble’s A, Finch Hill A, and Ballaugh A. The Finch men probably look most likely to finish highest out of these three teams.
Noble’s B are the Noble’s D team from last year who won Division Three, under the league rules the highest placed team gets rebranded as the B Team.
Peel B will be looking to return to Division One after missing out last year, however the club are understood to have lost a couple of players to other clubs over the winter, they may well struggle to make a return.
Breagle Glen B could be contenders to battle for promotion with having different players to pick from now.
In Division Three North Ramsey B will be hoping to bounce back to Division Two, however Noble’s C and Noble’s D who have new and improvers players in their ranks might have something to say about that after competing at the top end of the table last season.
More to follow…
Bradford Wins Pre-Season Ian Kissack Shield
Ian Kissack Shield Winner 2025 - David Bradford
Photo: Phil KellyMarown held the opening tournament of the highly anticipated 2025 season, with the Ian Kissack floodlight competition sponsored by Ardern & Druggan Limited attracting a healthy entry . The competition was played over four days, with two qualifiers from the four qualifying sessions.
The competition commenced on Sunday afternoon with home greeners dominating as Colin Kelly and Paul Kelly eased through their qualifying games to qualify for finals night.
Sunday evening saw current holder Peter Jones (Marown) defeating teammate Neil Withers 21-17 to qualify, whilst Reg Temporaza (Onchan) bucked the trend as he came back from a 12-17 deficit against Marown captain Paul Dunn to win in his second game, the Onchan man went on to beat another home greener Karl Parker 21-7 to qualify.
Monday evening saw South Ramsey’s David Bradford safely navigating his way through his qualifying games, as he beat Rob Monk (North Ramsey) 21-7 to qualify, whilst Glenn Boland held off Marown clubmate Phil Kelly 21-15 to qualify.
The last qualifying session took place on Tuesday evening, with Jamie Joughin earning his spot in the last eight with a 21-19 win over Dave McCabe (Douglas), whilst Matthew Quirk (Onchan) also had a tough battle as he held off Dave Naughton (Noble’s) 21-18 to qualify.
The competition was redrawn at the quarter final stage on Wednesday evening with Joughin, always up against it when drawn against Bradford, however he performed well before ducking out 16-21. Temporaza recorded a straightforward 21-13 against Paul Kelly.
In the other half of the draw Quirk performed brilliantly to end Jones’ hopes of retaining the Shield, with a 21-3 victory, whilst Glenn Boland was the highest scoring loser as he just lost out 17-21 to Colin Kelly.
Both semi-finals were never in doubt as Bradford beat Temporaza 21-11, whilst Kelly had a good run in the corners on his way to securing a 21-10 win over Quirk.
The final was played under floodlights on a green that is in superb condition, got underway with Bradford picking up a two on the first end, was then counting for two on the following end, only for Kelly to kill the end. A single was scored on the next end by Kelly, with the Marown man heading straight for the corners. Bradford had other ideas, as he got in, then went on to build up a 15-4 lead. A fightback looked to be on the cards, as Kelly got to within five chalks at 11-16, however the comeback was stopped there with Bradford finishing the game strongly to secure a 21-12 victory to pick up the Ian Kissack Shield for a fourth time.
The presentation was made by Marown President Peter Kelly, who thanked the sponsor Ardern & Druggan for their continued support, with thanks also given to the Marown ladies for the excellent refreshments provided over the duration of the competition. Ian Kissack’s sister Gill Kissack-Grundey was then introduced to present the prizes.
Castletown Narrowly Miss out on BCGBA Club Championship Final
BCGBA Ladies Club Championship - Castletown
Photo: Hannah DrewettThe 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 2nd 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.
Photo: Helen Withers
2025 Season
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The 2025 bowls season will kick off on Tuesday, 1st April, and the full fixtures for Men’s, Ladies Night, and Over 60s have now been published.
There is still some work to do, as we await confirmation from clubs regarding Opens and Captains. These details will be published as soon as all the data has been collected, verified, and prepared.
Men’s Over 60s Update – The structure of matches has changed. Clubs fielding a C team will now play their matches on a Tuesday or Thursday at 3:00 PM, while the A or B team will play their home matches at 1:00 PM.
Men’s Rayner Shield Draw – This is still to be done and will be published in the next week.
Mixed Team Competition – This will take place in September, with a slight format change being considered to further enhance this popular event. Final details will be confirmed and published in the coming month.
Stay tuned for updates!