Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

The Dreswick men’s singles took place on Thursday afternoon at Breagle Glen, this is Port St Mary’s longest running ‘Open’ competition, first played back in 1947. A good entry of 44 players took part, including 14 visiting bowlers on tour from the Owd Nell’s pub in Preston. A damp start didn’t dampen the atmosphere around the green and conditions improved throughout the day.

The fallers at the quarter final stage were Ben Mowle (Port Erin) to Paul Dunn ( Marown), Andy Tiffin (Owd Nell’s) to Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey), Wayne Roberts (Port St Mary) to David Bradford (South Ramsey). The closest quarter final match was between Trevor Quayle (Port St Mary) and Chris Dransfield (Owd Nells), with the game at 20-20 and a front toucher for Quayle, Dransfield managed to play into the touching wood and leave himself on to win the match 21-20.

The first semi-final was between Dunn and Hargraves, the latter started with three singles before Dunn won nine ends in a row to take an 18-9 lead. Hargraves got it back to 18-14 before Dunn finished it off to win 21-14.

The other semi-final between Bradford and Dransfield was a more one sided match, Bradford kept Dransfield down to scoring four singles to win 21-10.

The final between Dunn and Bradford was always going to be a close match, after 16 ends the score was 15-15, Bradford finished the stronger to win The Dreswick for the third time, adding to his wins from 2005 and 2022.

The prize presentation was made by Wayne Roberts thanking Port St Mary competition secretary Christine Holland for running the comp, and everyone else at Port St Mary bowling club that helped make the day a success.