Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Marown A retained the Rayner Shield on Friday evening at Noble’s Park, winning it for the 16th time and in doing so sit one win ahead of their opponents on the night Onchan A.

News had filtered through during the week that as well as Marown missing their captain Paul Dunn due to pre-booked holidays that Onchan were in a similar predicament with Peter Slinger also away.

It was always my opinion (and many others) that if Onchan were to win they would need to win on games, with the win on chalks possibly being beyond Onchan and so it proved with the games ending 4-4 and Marown easing to the win courtesy of winning by 30 chalks (150-120).

First off for Marown was Paul Kelly with a win over Rob Monk, with Monk leading 8-6 Kelly then scored six two’s and three singles to see the game out 21-11. Next off was the ever reliable Colin Kelly, who played the long lengths well against Kevin Quirk, going 20-5 up with Quirk picking up a further five points before Kelly managed to finish the game off to take a 21-10 win. Hitting back for Onchan Matthew Quirk just got over the line 21-20 against Neil Withers, with Quirk going 11-5 then 13-7 up before Withers fought back to take the lead 19-16, with Quirk getting back in at a vital time with Withers lying two for game. From there Withers scored one more to Quirk’s five. Phil Kerruish took on Bob Clark who had stepped in for their captain, which is a luxury for Marown to be able to bring in a player of Clark’s quality any time throughout the season. There were no signs of rustiness from Clark who performed well and despite being 11-16 down Clark dug in to get back to 19-20, before Kerruish got the one point he needed to take Onchan’s second win of the night 21-19. At the halfway stage it was 2-2 with Marown leading by 18 chalks (81-63).

In the second half Phil Kelly started well first end lying two good bowls either side of the jack with his opponent Jordan Cain trailing the jack to make two. From there Cain performed brilliantly scoring nine two’s and three singles to put Onchan right back in it winning 21-7 to lead 3-2 on games and reduce the deficit on chalks to just four. Dean Kipling squandered the chance to win to single figures over Mark Kelly with his second bowl, only needing to stay on the green within 6 yards for game. Kipling sent his second bowl off, which gave Kelly the chance to take two more points before losing out 10-21. Stepping in for the Onchan captain was Phil Watterson who performed well despite losing 5-21, keeping John Gelling down to scoring singles with his first ten points and having several good bowls that didn’t count. This sealed the win for Marown as they were now 4-3 ahead on games and 31 chalks ahead with only one game left on the green. The final game on the green was between Onchan’s Mike Thomas and Matthew Keggen with the game being close throughout. In the latter stages of the game Keggen took a 20-18 lead and was lying one for game with Thomas responding by playing out the counting bowl. Thomas then played into the heavy corner playing two bowls just over two foot away which caught Keggen out as he played two short bowls, which sealed a second 21-20 win of the night for Onchan and salvaged some pride.

The presentation was made by Steve Moore, who thanked everyone who helped, John Ruscoe for refereeing, Noble’s for the use of the green, also for providing the measurers and refreshments to the players and spectators. The Rayner Shield was then presented to Marown captain for the night Neil Withers.

1. Matthew Quirk 21-20 Neil Withers
2. Phil Kerruish 21-19 Bob Clark
3. Kevin Quirk 10-21 Colin Kelly
4. Rob Monk 11-21 Paul Kelly
5. Mark Kelly 10-21 Dean Kipling
6. Jordan Cain 21-7 Phil Kelly
7. Mike Thomas 21-20 Matthew Keggen
8. Phil Watterson 5-21 John Gelling