Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

In Ellan Vannin Fuels Division One fixtures were put back to Wednesday evening due to the Bank Holiday on Monday, with some teams making an early start to allow players to get home to watch the big game!

Third placed Marown A hosted Peel B at Crosby, the home team whilst winning 7-3 would have been disappointing to drop three points with Peel’s Dougie Allan beating Matthew 21-18, whilst Brian Lindsay and Gordon Corrin both pipped Paul Kelly and Juan Killip 21-20 respectively. Peel will have been delighted with the three points. For the home team all their wins were comfortable, it looks like Dean Kipling could be a permanent fixture for the second half of the season, he won his game 21-14 against David Proctor.

Second placed Peel A bounced back from last week’s heavy defeat to win 8-2, they had the pleasure of hosting Marown B in the sunset city with Brian Kelly returning to his old stomping ground, he was one of two winners seeing off Tom Kelly 21-19, whilst Glenn Boland inflicted a second straight league defeat on Peter Greenlees with Boland winning 21-11. Winning to single figures for the home side were Gary Smith, Ste Kelly and George Gadsby.

Ballaugh A welcomed league leaders South Ramsey A, with the home team losing 2-8 to the visitors. Winning for the home team were John ‘Shirt’ Keenan who shown his class to recover from a 2-12 deficit against Grandson Stefan Kelly to run out with a 21-15 win, whilst John Maddrell never knows when he is beaten, fighting back from a 15-20 deficit to Chas Grills to win 21-20. Ballaugh could have had a third win on the night with Richard Hainge leading 17-11 against James Teare, who dug in to run out with a 21-18 victory. The visitors had two single figure victories with Dido Kelly winning 21-8 against Tony Quine, whilst Alan Moore continues his return to form playing brilliantly to win 21-6 against Patrick Grant.

Port St Mary A are in somewhat of a false position having played seven of their 11 home league games due to not having floodlights for later on in the season, they held off Castletown A on a fast home green to record a 6-4 win, with Ray Watterson showing he has still got what it takes to compete in division one with a stunning 21-0 victory over Nathan Cooil. At the other end of the spectrum captain Wayne Roberts was on the right side of a 21-20 this week, beating opposing captain Ian Watson. Trevor Quayle returned to winning ways with a 21-7 win against Dean Kinley, whilst Robbie Cooil continues to fly high in the overall merit defeating Aaron Richardson 21-12 to make it eight wins from 10 games. For the visitors Jordan Drewett just edged home 21-20 against Tim Williams, Bob Clark won to single figures against Paul Russell, whilst Sam Clague won 21-14 against Juan Hargraves, with the latter helping out his club playing in just his fourth game of bowls since 2017 and first since 2019.

Two teams suffered 10-0 home defeats, with Noble’s A losing to Douglas A, with Martyn Hobson coming closest to picking up a point for his team, before losing out 18-21 to Gary Conwell, whilst North Ramsey A didn’t make home advantage count with their heavy defeat at the hands of Onchan A.

In Division Two South Ramsey B moved their home match with Finch Hill A to Friday evening with both teams having the opportunity to go top if they recorded a big win. The home team made home advantage count winning 7-3 with Tony Dugdale and Steven Waters both winning to single figures, whilst Ben Dugdale had to work hard to beat Dave Jones 21-19, and Eddie Carlyle just got home 21-20. For the visitors Tony Epifani made sure it wasn’t an even heavier defeat winning 21-19 against Christian Caley, whilst Dave McCabe and John Harris won comfortably against Bryan Corner and George Brew respectively. The result put the South Ramsey men joint top with Castletown B on 56 points.

Port St Mary B and Castletown B played out a true draw 5-5 with both teams winning four games and tying on chalks (140-140) to share the aggregate.

Marown C suffered a 2-8 home defeat to Port Erin A with both teams winning and losing a 21-20, For the Crosby men Jamie Joughin was on the right side of the score, whilst captain Stephen Rundle, was the wrong side losing out to Bernie Durcan.

South Ramsey C came away from the Villa pleased with their 8-2 away win over Douglas B, just missing out on a 10-0 win by just seven chalks, with David Corkill losing 17-21 to Bob Callow, whilst Andy Morgan recovered from a slow start before losing out 18-21 to Steve Gregg.

Onchan B stay in the mix for a long awaited return to division one, following their 8-2 away win against Finch Hill B, with Will Penhallurick continuing to impress at this level, he recorded a 21-15 win over Kevin Stannard.

The Division Three fixtures were unusually held before the top two divisions last week due to the Bank Holiday, with league leaders Ballaugh B not having it all their own way dropping four points with their 6-4 home win over Port Erin B.

Ballaugh B were well beaten 8-2 away to Onchan C with Gordie Moore winning 21-20 against Sid McKnight for the visitors to prevent an even heavier defeat.

Something doesn’t sit quite right with me following the Douglas D result against Douglas C, with the lower ranked D team winning 9-1 this could mean a reshuffling of the teams is required for next season to get the teams right, however the D side is full of new bowlers who appear to be enjoying the game since they took it up. Three single figure victories for the D team, is proof the result was well deserved.

Castletown C suffered a 7-3 home defeat to Peel D who themselves have a number of new bowlers who continue to impress, they have Philip ‘Pip’ Pemberton leading the way for them as he won 21-8 against Byron Mercer to make it eight wins from nine games played, whilst for Castletown John Matheson was one of three home team winners and currently sits top of the individual merit to remain unbeaten this season thanks to his 21-7 win over Andy Morrison.

South Ramsey D slipped to a 4-6 defeat at home to Noble’s B, with players on both teams all reaching double figures, with the visitors taking the aggregate by 10 chalks (129-139).