Mens Night League Underway
This is a ground breaking season for Manx Bowls with the Islands inaugural inclusion in the Senior County Championships and with hope of a good showing in that it was great to see the domestic league season start with a bang.
The big guns are all firing early on and league champions Onchan A top the Isle of Man Bank division one table after two maximum 10-0 wins. Onchan are the team to beat again this year and will be very pleased with the start they have made.
South Ramsey A finished third last year and many people think they can get a lot closer to the top two this year and really put the cat amongst the pigeons. They know they can beat anybody and have good strength in depth and a terrific start from them has seem them score two maximums of their own, only trailing Onchan on chalk difference.
Marown A finished last year in second place and whilst they only had one game last week, they must be happy with their start. They beat Port St Mary 8-2 away from home, a result that cannot be understated as the southerners are very hard to shift on their own patch. Port backed this statement up midweek with an 8-2 home victory over a strong Douglas side who came into the fixture off the back of a 9-1 win away at Ballaugh earlier in the week.
Castletown A will have been delighted with their start and a 9-1 win at home against Port Erin A followed up with a 5-5 draw away at newly promoted Finch Hill A has seen them move into 3rd with some good early points on the board.
Division 2 has also started will and is very tight at the top after only 1 round of fixtures. Peel B are surprise leaders after a great 8-2 home win over North Ramsey B, and they are closely followed by South Ramsey B who recorded their own 8-2 win on their travels to Nobles B.
Ballaugh B and Douglas B both picked up good 7-3 wins to see them start off in third and fourth place respectively. It was also great to see newly promoted Marown B start with a 6-4 win away at Onchan B, the Crosby boys battled back from 4-0 down at halftime to win the remaining games and take the aggregate points.
What a difference a year makes and last seasons division 3 basement outfit Douglas C top the league after a magnificent 10-0 victory in their first fixture. They struggled last year only winning in their final match of the campaign but things already look very different for them this time around.
Ballaugh C and Onchan C both picked up very respectable 8-2 wins to trail Douglas in second and third places.