Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

There was an excellent entry of 57 who took part in the last Dreswick Cup at Port St Mary’s current bowling green. The competition was once again sponsored by The Albert Hotel – Port St Mary. The hottest day of the year and an extremely tricky green led to an excellent afternoon of bowling.

In the quarter finals the current holder and home favourite Trevor Quayle lost out 12-21 to Bob Clark (Castletown), with another home greener Wayne Robert’s also losing 12-21 to Colin Kelly (Marown). In an all Peel tie Gary Smith got the better of teammate Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly 21-16, while Karl Parker (Marown) performed well before losing out 18-21 to Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey).

In the first semi-final Clark got the better of Kelly with a 21-15 win to take his place in the final, while in the second semi Hargraves looked dead and buried trailing 9-17 to Smith, however and not for the first time that day Hargraves fought back to run out with a 21-18 win.

In the final Clark started off the quicker of the two as he took a 10-6 lead with two doubles. With excellent bowling from both players, Hargraves responded to take the lead 13-10 playing a tricky mark over the crown. A double for Clark had the match finely poised at 12-13 before Hargraves moved up another gear to take firm control of the match to lead 20-14 and within touching distance of the win, however two quick fire doubles then three singles over the next five ends from Clark, who never played the same mark twice was enough to complete a remarkable comeback to win The Dreswick Cup for the first time in what was an entertaining final. This was Clark’s first singles title this season having come close on a number of occasions this season.

At the presentation Club President Peter Collins thanked the Port St Mary ladies for their usual excellent catering, Wayne Robert’s for preparing the green and running the competition along with anyone else that helped on the day. Long standing sponsor of the competition Pat O’Meara from the Albert Hotel was then introduced to present the prizes.