This Sunday 23rd Peel will host a Mixed Doubles Competition – The Lancaster Cup.
This replaces the South Ramsey team competition which has been moved to September due to their facilities not being ready in time to hold the competition.
It is short notice so we are relying on word of mouth as much as anything to get entries so please pass word around your club.
Please support this new competition. To enter simply follow the link below to the website or email Phil Parker [email protected]
Unfortunately two teams fielded 5 players in their shield match – there is a minimum of 6 – so those teams are ineligible to play in the Plate competition.
As a result we had to re-draw the competition so please pass word around to the captains that the fixtures in the book are incorrect and the website has the correct fixtures from this point forward.
There are now only 16 teams in the Plate so no prelim round required.
It is with deep regret that, following last night’s emergency meeting of the IOM County Management Committee, it has been decided that the Isle of Man will not be able to fulfil its fixtures in the Crosfield Cup this season.
This decision was reached with a heavy heart and after a lot of soul searching. However, it was felt that, given the overwhelming increase in our costs that the collapse of Citywing brought about at such short notice (just 3 weeks ago), to proceed with the fixtures could jeopardise the financial stability of the county association and this was a risk that the committee felt they could not take.
We are immediately looking into alternative plans for the IOMCCGBA’s participation in the Crosfield Cup 2018, which will hopefully be cost effective and sustainable for future years.
We must take this opportunity to thank the BCGBA and the three counties involved in our efforts to hastily arrange alternative arrangements for this season’s fixtures, for a while we thought we could find a way through this disaster, but unfortunately time has been our enemy.
Specific thanks must go to off Island support from John Crowther, Duncan Reeves, Graeme Wilson, Mike Holden and Phil Brown.
Once again many thanks for everyone’s help and support, we are saddened to have to take this decision but we feel it is the best course of action to secure future development and safeguard finances across the whole of the IOMCCGBA.
Neil Withers
Chairman IOMCCGBA
The Island Bowls team is facing an uncertain future following the collapse of Citywing.
The Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling team has been competing at the highest level in the UK for the past two years and is set to play their first county match of the season in May against Yorkshire.
The county matches consist of home and away ties involving two 12-man squads. One squad travels to the away green, while the local team hosts 12 visiting players from the opposition.
In the past, the IOM team has chartered a 19-seater Citywing plane, which flew the IOM team to the UK and returned with the visiting bowlers. An early-evening departure took visiting bowlers back to the UK and then returned with the away squad.
This arrangement has worked well and was set to continue this year, however, the collapse of Citywing means that Manx bowlers have fixtures in May, June and July but no transport to take them.
The current timings of scheduled commercial flights means that travel off island and return cannot happen in one day – a requirement of the IOM’s inclusion in the County Bowls set up.
The organization committee have worked tirelessly to come up with a logistical and financially suitable solution however we haven’t found one yet.
We only have a short time before a decision needs to be made to withdraw or have an alternative plan so if anyone knows is in a position to help we’d be happy to speak with them.
<strong>Neil Withers – Chairman</strong>
<a href=”mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>
<strong>07624483666</strong>
All 2017 fixtures have been uploaded onto the website and you will be able to find them in the various sections.
Some clubs are still to confirm their open details to the association. As soon as all of the information has been received the open pages will be created and published. For now just a list of the opens and dates is available.
It was agreed by the Men’s Executive Committee that the Men’s Night League will run through September. This has allowed the League and Rayner to be spread more evenly through the season but the Mixed Team Competition can now be integrated into the calendar.
Starting in May the teams entered will be split into groups of 4 and play home and away against the other teams in their group. The 6 group matches will take place between May and August with the Semi Final and Final being held on neutral greens in September.
The draw and fixtures for this competition will be announced soon.
There is a new Stats section on the website where all player profiles are now stored. When viewing a player profile you can now compare head to head records and see player ranking positions. The rankings are based on all competitive matches since 2012.
Players profiles can still be accessed as before from merit and team pages by clicking on the players name.
Clubs are still to confirm captains and the pages have been removed until this data is available.
Whilst much of the information is the same you can now search directly for a player and compare head to head two players. There are also ranking tables for the Men, Ladies and Winter League – the rankings roll year to year and every competitive game played attributes to the rankings. The rankings table will be updated every couple of weeks to include recent games played.
Due to the winter league introducing the doubles and some of these matches being played as 1v1 or 2v1 the individual scores cannot be imported as they break the website data structures. This is the sole reason for their being no stats or merit information from the winter league.
Use the links below to download the fixture lists in excel format
South Ramsey retained the Ellan Vannin Fuels Mixed Team Championship with a convincing 182-127 (8-1) win over Nobles.
South have dominated the Mixed Team competition since 2008 notching up their 7th title tonight.
The Mens Association would like to pass their thanks to the sponsors Ellan Vannin Fuels, Finch Hill, Nobles & Douglas for the use of their green and the club members who have been on hand to assist on the night.
On Saturday the Ballaugh Bowling Club held the Keenan 4’s Mens Doubles Trophy. With an entry of 39 pairs it was always going to be a long day for both the Competition Hut and the Kitchen teams as well as the players. Despite the forecasted bad weather most of the rain passed us by and the green was running well. By the time the final was played there was blue skies over Ballaugh..
After nearly 7 hours play the winners were Matthew Keggen & Rob Monk who beat Colin & Tom Kelly In the final. Losing semi-finalists were Jordan Cain & Bob Clark and Neil Withers & Paul Dunn and the losing quarter finalists were Adrian Skinner & Kevin Quirk, Mike Hargraves & Ian Kissack, John Keenan & Peter Graham and Geoff Porter & Norman Radcliffe.
At the conclusion Club President John Keenan thanked all those who helped to make it a success and presented the prizes..
Best placed home greeners were John Keenan and Peter Graham getting into the quarter finals with three other pairs getting two games.
Once again thanks to the lades keeping us fed and watered together with Paul Bradford and Ann Gale for help in the Competition Hut
South Ramsey A have done it! They have won their first ever Ellan Vannin Fuels League Division One title.
It is nothing more than they deserve after a season which they dominated for the most part, although they didn’t sign off their campaign the way they would have hoped narrowly going down 6-4 away at Port St Mary A.
Port’s impressive victory was enough to ensure they secured fourth spot and hold off a fast finishing Douglas A side who turned on the style down the road as they beat Port Erin A 9-1 to finish two points adrift in fifth.
Four points for South away from home were enough to clinch victory finishing six points ahead of Marown A who ended their challenge with an 8-2 win over Douglas B to take second place.
It is hard to explain to people from outside the local bowling fraternity how impressive this win is as the sport has been so ruthlessly dominated by Onchan A and Marown A in recent memory and for anyone to break this stranglehold is a monumental achievement.
The last time neither of the old firm won the title was in 1996 when Casteltown A took top spot, and for the past fourteen years Onchan and Marown have occupied both first and second places.
South have been simply superb this season and they add this league title to the Rayner shield that they won a few weeks ago. Club stalwart John Kennish finished the season unbeaten to take the Division One Merit ensuring his side completed a clean sweep of all the major honours. Congratulations to both John and South Ramsey on the clubs finest ever season, and with the players in their ranks it would be hard to be against them doing the same next term.
Although Onchan A had to relinquish their title they finished the season in fine form beating South Ramsey B 10-0. They have been magnificent champions and will be remembered as such and if they can start their next title challenge the way they ended this one they things could be very different.
North Ramsey A defeated Nobles A 7-3 to finish in sixth spot and relegate their opponents along with Finch Hill A who had no game this week.
Ballaugh A completed an Houdini like escape as they picked up a surprise 7-3 victory over Castletown A to finish just one point above the relegation zone and ensure they kept their seat at the top table for 2017.
Overall this has been a memorable season with some brilliant bowls played, some unbelievable shock results but I have to say in the end the best team won and South Ramsey A deserve all the accolades and plaudits afforded them.
I think next year could be an even more thrilling season and I approach the winter break with bated breath in anticipation of what the 2017 season could have in store for us.
I would like to end by thanking Ellan Vannin Fuels for their sponsorship of the leagues and for forming a partnership that is helping the bowls association develop the sport on the Island.
