Marown favourite Colin Kelly put the icing on the cake of a great season on Saturday winning the Champion of Champions at the Waterloo Hotel in Blackpool to write his name into Manx and UK bowls history.

This season Kelly has won five singles titles, the Manx Championship, Association Cup, Manx Masters, Peel Town Cup and the opening competition of the season the Marown Floodlit, not forgetting winning the individual merit in division one.

Kelly was representing the Isle of Man and qualified for the Champion of Champions courtesy of his Manx Championship win in May when he defeated Onchan man Jordan Cain in the final 21-11. He was in the mix with 15 other County Merit winners, whilst the rest of the field was made up by those who had won some of the games biggest competitions that are played throughout the season or through winning the Junior or Senior BCGBA merit.

At the start of play in a field of 32 players Kelly was priced at 40-1 by the bookies and was by no means the favourite with some of the games biggest names taking part in Callum Wraight, Graeme Wilson, Ryan Prosser and John Bailey to name a few.

In the first round Colin was drawn against Lancashire merit winner Damian Morrison and managed to build up a comfortable lead early on playing a fairly long straight peg around the crown. Kelly led 13-3 and managed to maintain his lead after Morrison started to work his way back into the game before Kelly finished the game off to win 21-13.

In the second round Kelly faced the Greater Manchester Merit winner Jack Hargreaves, who had disposed of Craig Gant, a player well known on the Island. Kelly went for a longer length mark in this game, with Hargreaves preferring to play the edges and short round pegs and playing them really well. Kelly led well on the longer marks in difficult conditions. Kelly battled well to take a hard earned 21-17 victory.

In the quarter finals Kelly was up against South Yorkshire merit winner James Higgins with Kelly trailing 6-13, Higgins was leading well over 35 yards playing sweeping round pegs across the crown. Once again this forced Kelly to go for a longer length and in doing so not giving his opponent much room with Higgins generally short or pushing too far through as the heavy rain started in the latter stages. Higgins had previously put out the 2018 winner John Bailey with a convincing win, however Kelly claimed a 21-19 win to progress.

With Kelly having reached the semi-finals he had now matched the best performance by a Manxman achieved by John Kennish in 2015. This time he was up against the Shropshire Merit winner Spencer Clarke, who was in truth the best player on the green up until this point having taken three good scalps to reach the semi-finals including a 21-6 win over 2019 BCGBA Senior merit winner Ryan Prosser. With conditions worsening the green started to puddle and ‘cobbing’ was required to be able to reach, which is an art in itself in being able to control your bowls. Kelly took full advantage of the conditions to take a 21-11 win with the result more comfortable than expected.

Having reached the final Kelly was not letting a once in a lifetime opportunity pass him by and was simply brilliant. Kelly was up against Scott Simpson (Wrockwardine Wood winner) who had earlier in the day disposed of one of the games greatest ever players in Graeme Wilson, therefore Kelly knew he what he was up against and recognised that Simpson had no trouble reaching the longer marks, the game plan changed to shorter marks over the crown which he executed brilliantly to take a 8-3 lead, building on this further still to lead 16-7. Kelly then conceded his only double of the game before responding with two quick fire doubles to lead 20-9 with his ability to make two making a big difference having scored seven doubles throughout the game. Simpson then scored a single, only to throw the jack off when heading into the corner. Kelly set the mark and made his first bowl count forcing Simpson to reach with his second bowl, however he missed resulting in Kelly taking a superb 21-10 victory to claim a first ever win for a Manxman in the games biggest competition.

This is a popular win amongst the bowling community with Colin putting the time in for a number of years now to give something back to the game having become involved in the Manx Youth Games as a coach in 2013, whilst also coaching Juniors on a weekly basis at his club. In addition to this Colin also helps with the maintenance of the Marown bowling green and you couldn’t meet a nicer guy, who has now fulfilled a lifelong dream of winning a top UK competition. All that is left to say is what a bowler, what a season, what a man!

The Isle of Man Ladies Crown Green Bowling Association ran a Tombola over the summer season, raising funds to help assist with travel and accommodation for IOM Ladies players attending qualifying competitions in England.  

The Association agreed to donate one third of the amount raised towards Huntington’s Disease (IOM), a support group and charity that was started in 2017 by Helen Martin, a crown green bowler who has been bowling for 38 years on the Island. This charity is very close to her heart, as her husband has Huntington’s, he also used to play crown green bowls. 

All the clubs on the Island were given Tombola tickets to sell plus more were sold during the IOM September Bowls Festival. The amount raised was a massive £2,037.95, with £700 being donated to HDAIOM. 

The Ladies Association would like to thank all those who sold tickets, along with the companies, individuals and clubs who donated raffle prizes and to everyone who bought tickets to support them. Helen Martin, Chairman of Huntington’s Disease (IOM) stated “Thank you to the Ladies Association for choosing our Charity, this amount will help us to meet our objectives of raising awareness, continue to provide a support group for patients, carers and professionals resident on the Island, along with providing financial assistance to patients and carers to enable them to attend seminars, workshops and other educational events organised by the HDA UK and finally to promote research into finding a cure”.

Marown Bowling Club held the Juan Kelly Cup with the competition now in its third year it still proved popular with 44 teams taking part. Once again there were some interesting pairings making use of the handicap system played over two qualifying nights, with four pairs qualifying from each night for the quarter finals.

The format was any combination doubles, played over 15 ends with ends 5, 10 and 15 played as ‘power’ ends with the points scored counting double. The pairs were given a handicap based on their rankings in the Men’s and Ladies game. If scores were tied after 15 ends a one bowl shootout would take place to decide the winner.

On Monday evening 20 pairs played their qualifying night, whilst Tuesday evening had 24 pairs taking part. The finals night was held on Wednesday evening, with a re-draw taking place to determine who the pairings would play on the night.

The eventual winners were the South Ramsey pairing of John Kennish and David Bradford who were playing off a scratch handicap seeing off the current holders Bernie Durcan and Steve Durcan (Port Erin), who were playing off a handicap of +5. The final started with the Durcan’s taking four of the first five ends to take an 11-1 lead, before the top pairing hit back with some good lead bowls from Kennish, backed up by Bradford to take a three, then a double -thanks to vital hit from Bradford, which was swiftly followed up by another three. The Durcan’s took a single before Kennish and Bradford scored a two on the power end after a great strike from Bradford, which doubled up to four, to then score another four to turn the game on its head 17-12. The Port Erin pairing got back in with a three to bring the deficit down to just two chalks at 15-17, however the South Ramsey duo managed to take the last three ends to secure a 22-15 victory to complete a great comeback.

Losing out in the semi-finals were Marown captain Paul Dunn and his Dad Phil Dunn (+5) with the latter playing in his first competition and performing brilliantly, they tied (19-19) with the Durcan’s resulting in a one bowl shootout between Paul and Steve with the latter holding his nerve to beat an 18 inch bowl to claim a spot in the final. Also losing out in the semi-final were Frank Watson (Onchan) and Andy Kennish (Peel), who were well beaten 9-20 by the eventual winners.

Losing quarter finalists were Debbie Leece and Clare Cooper (Noble’s) who were the furthest ladies, Peel pair Gordon Corrin and Dougie Allan, Onchan duo Steve Parker and Kevin Quirk along with Jordan Drewett (Castletown) and Tom Kelly (Peel).

At the conclusion of play the presentation was made by Phil Kelly, who thanked Juan Kelly for once again sponsoring the competition, the Ladies for the refreshments, the players for entering, and all those who stayed to support.

The final of the Ellan Vannin Fuels mixed team competition took place at Castletown on Wednesday evening with the Crosby outfit starting the match as favourites, however the draw would be crucial to both teams. The Castletown green was in superb condition and a good crowd came along to support on the night.

From the first five games on the green Neil Withers was first off for Marown with a big 21-6 win over Dave McCabe, despite losing two doubles early on McCabe could only take two more singles. Second game off on the night was Dan McCabe who recorded a 21-5 win over Mary Alderson to cancel the damage from the first game off. Next off were Paul Dunn & Paul Skelly with Dunn performing well to win 21-16. Fourth game off was Colin Kelly who claimed a 21-5 victory over Trish Bull. The last game off in the first half of the match was Chris Price who ensured Port St Mary were only trailing by four chalks (69-73) to keep themselves in the match.

During the second half the momentum swung in favour of Port St Mary, with Wayne Roberts winning 21-11 against Rosie Winckle, this result was swiftly followed by Trevor Quayle putting in a good performance against Paul Kelly to win 21-10 to put the chalks at 111-94 in favour of Port St Mary. By this point the match had got away from Marown with Jayne Kneen 20-8 up on Lil Smith and Margaret Tasker trailing 10-17 on Matthew Keggen there was no way back for the Crosby team. Smith fought back well against Kneen before losing out 16-21, whilst Tasker turned the game around brilliantly to take a single and five consecutive doubles on a short length to run out with a 21-17 victory to cap a fine team performance in sealing their fourth Mixed title by 26 chalks (153-127) winning 6-3 on games and gaining revenge for their 2017 defeat to the same opponents.

The presentation was made by Association Press Officer Glynn Hargraves who thanked Castletown for the use of the green, providing measurers and refreshments, along with Juan Kermode. Winning captain Margaret Tasker thanked her team and everyone who had turned up to support.