Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

An entry of 32 took part in the Ken Williamson Memorial Cup. Ken was a popular player amongst the bowling community. The Onchan green was in superb condition on a fine day for crown green bowls.

Losing out at the quarter-final stage were Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey), who was just edged out 20-21 by home greener Kevin Quirk, Rob Monk (North Ramsey) lost out 18-21 to Marown favourite Colin Kelly. South Ramsey’s David Bradford made light work of Bernie McPhee (Onchan) who failed to score and was beaten 21-6, whilst Neil Withers (Marown) ended the hopes of Steve Walmsley (North Ramsey) with a 21-15 win.

In the semi-finals Bradford had a good battle with Withers, with the South Ramsey man winning 21-16, whilst Kelly had to battle back from a 11-16 deficit against Quirk, with the former going on to win 21-19 to take his place in the final.

The final was both players fifth game of the day, with this the third weekend in a row that these two have played each other with Kelly winning their duel in the Ramsey Town Cup last weekend and Bradford having arguably the bigger bragging rights having beaten Kelly in the Manx Championship at Ballaugh on his way to victory two weeks ago.

Bradford took the early initiative in the game to lead 13-11 after nine ends. Kelly responded taking four of the next five ends to creep ahead 15-14. This kicked Bradford into gear as he grabbed the opportunity to score a double, a trick that he repeated on the next end playing along the shelter edge of the green with two great bowls. From there Bradford stuck to the clubhouse edge as his second bowl came to his rescue on the last three ends as he picked up three singles to win 21-15.

The presentation was made by Mike Thomas with special thanks given to Neil Dunwell who had stepped in to run the competition and to the ladies for putting on the refreshments. Ken Williamson’s niece Diane Crossley was then introduced to present the prizes. In his speech Bradford referred to a photo that had been taken of him bowling with Ken at Marown, which he believed was taken in 1994. This was the third time that Bradford has won the trophy having won the title in 2013 and 2017.