Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Ladies crown green bowling got underway on Friday night with the Open Age League following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.   It has been a bitter-sweet start to the bowling season with a couple of teams withdrawing from the Open Age League and Over 60s league due to dwindling club numbers and a couple of clubs forming a second team having increased membership of ‘new to the game lady bowlers’; Junior lady bowlers and bowlers transferring from other clubs.   Given these changes, this season has the promise of being an interesting one.

Featured match from the opening week in the Open Age Night League was between the newly formed Marown B playing host to their stable mates Marown A. This match was played on Thursday evening due to Marown having the official opening of their new clubhouse on the Friday evening.  Two new bowlers for Marown B, Jo Corkill and Amanda Butler, took on Marown A’s Elaine Dewhirst and Joyce Ogden respectively. Although Jo and Amanda played well they struggled against the more experienced bowlers with both losing 4-21.   The three junior lady bowlers of Marown B are sisters Grace and Emily Cooper (playing league bowls for the first time) and Rebekah Kelly.   Grace played Lynda Cadamy, Emily took on Marown A’s captain Lil Smith with Rebekah playing Shirley Whelan.   All three girls played exceptionally well, but couldn’t quite get over the line with Grace losing to 13, Emily losing to 6 and Rebekah losing to 3.  Next game saw Rebecca Teare for Marown B playing Philippa Taylor.  On paper this was always going to be a close game and it didn’t disappoint with Philippa eventually running out 21-18.   The two closest games of the night saw Deborah Leece for Marown B taking on Jayne Smith and Helen Withers, Marown B’s captain, playing Rosie Winckle.   Both games were nick and tuck throughout with Deborah losing 20-21 to Jayne and Helen beating Rosie by the same score line.  The remaining game was between Clare Cooper for Marown B and Celia Joughin for Marown A; this resulted in a comfortable 21-4 win for Clare.  Overall score: Marown B 110 – Marown A 171 (two games to seven).   

The remaining Open Age league matches were played on Friday.  There were some very close results, especially South Ramsey who lost on games, but won on points.