News: Announcements
New Season Gets Underway
League Champions 2018
The long awaited night league crown green bowls season starts on Monday 1st April with Division One champions South Ramsey A, who will have it all to do to retain their title with the news that the Islands undisputed number one player John Kennish is taking a break from night league bowls having won everything there is to at team level, with the loss further compounded by a couple of their top players due to be missing for stints throughout the season. With the loss of Kennish, this has given James Teare the opportunity to step up having improved each season that he has played since taking the game up in 2013 to prove there is a reward for putting the time in to the game.
South Ramsey B have signed Edward Carlyle from Onchan, who will be encouraged to be playing regular first division bowls, as they look to secure another season in the top division.
Marown A have no changes to report from their first team from last year, may well be favourites to win the league for the first time since 2013. Whilst Marown fell short by 21 points last season, they will no doubt feel that they can perform better individually and as a team, and will be in good spirits with a number of their players having recently returned from a bowling holiday in Cyprus.
Marown B who have a good blend of youth and experience will feel confident of retaining their top flight status once again, having done so fairly comfortably last season.
Onchan A look to have made a couple of signings, with Frank Watson joining from Peel A whilst Steve Parker is rumoured to be making the move from North Ramsey A, they will look to improve on last seasons points total.
Peel A have signed three time former Manx Champion Andy Kennish, who joins from Douglas having captained them last season, with Stevie Kelly taking on the captaincy for a second season.
Douglas A having lost their captain, appear to be largely unchanged. Former Manx Champion Gary Conwell is now entering his 40th season of league bowls with 25 of those on the Isle of Man.
2018 Division two winners Noble’s A will be hopeful of staying in the top division, provided they have managed to keep the same team as they had last season, with young Glenn Boland and newcomer Reginald Temporaza in their ranks with both keen to impress in the top flight.
Port St Mary A have signed Dave McCabe who has made the short move from Port Erin, which has allowed McCabe to continue to play bowls in division one, whilst my younger brother Glenn ‘Tango’ Hargraves is rumoured to be on the verge of making a bowls comeback after a number of years away from the game.
Castletown A have been struck a blow with the news that Mike Hargraves has taken the tough decision to stop playing bowls having played for Castletown A since 1974, with 17 year old Sam Clague believed to be taking the opportunity to step up into the A Team.
The B team will be confident of staying in division one having gained promotion last season and may look to give their A Team a run for their money as to who will be top dogs in the town. Rumour has it Bob Clark has returned to Castletown and will be playing in the B Team, with Nathan Cooil making a full comeback which is great to see. Nathan Hamilton has left Port St Mary after just one season to join up with Clark & Cooil.
Back to the north of the Island and North Ramsey A have a new captain in Allan Callow, who will no doubt hope the improvement in the green last season has continued over the winter to help their good home form.
In Division Two Port Erin A will be looking to bounce back from being relegated, with the club hoping to take over the maintenance of the bowling green shortly which will allow them the opportunity to have the green as they would like it, this may well encourage new members to join the club. Port Erin when running well can be a difficult green to play.
Ballaugh A & Finch Hill A are the only other A Teams in the men’s night league that don’t have an A Team in division one, with Ballaugh A the more likely of the two who could possibly go up, with their home form not in doubt, it is their results on their travels that will be key to mounting a serious challenge.
Douglas B who were relegated along with Port Erin A may find it a bit tougher to go straight back up to division one.
Division three champions Marown C, will be hopeful of continuing their season by season improvement by retaining their place in division two, whilst Ballaugh B may find it a bit tougher to stay up.
In Division three Noble’s have added a third men’s night league team, with Douglas D dropping out of the league having struggled to fill four teams for the majority of the 2018 season, whilst Port Erin B will be looking to make an immediate return to division two.
After a tough summer last season the Islands clubs can only hope their greens have wintered well following the work carried out in the Autumn to help get them into good condition for the 2019 season.
I hope everyone is looking forward to the new season and I look forward to seeing you around the greens.
World Club Championships
Following their success in winning the league for a third consecutive season, South Ramsey A once again have the opportunity to compete in the World Club Championships on Sunday 7th April, with the competition taking place at Spen Victoria Bowling Club where they take on Ecclestone (Merseyside). The competition involves 16 teams, is played over four consecutive weekends in a group of four teams on a straight knockout basis. The other two teams in the group are Newdigate (North Midlands) who will play Thurgoland (South Yorkshire). The winners from each game in the group then play off to qualify for the finals day on Sunday April 14th.
Kelly Wins First Open of 2019 Season
Kelly On His Way to Victory in 2019 Season Opener
Photo: Mike AshmoleMarown held the opening tournament of the season for the third successive year, with the floodlight competition sponsored by Ardern & Druggan Limited attracting a strong entry of 80. The competition was played over four qualifying nights, with four qualifiers from each evening.
The competition commenced on Sunday evening with home greener Colin Kelly doing enough to qualify for Thursday’s finals night ending the challenge of Rob Monk (Onchan), Nathan Hamilton (Castletown) performed well to defeat Matthew Keggen (Marown), with Jimmy Samson (Douglas) and David Proctor (Peel) the other qualifiers.
Monday evening’s action had the first lady qualifier for finals night with Clare Cooper (Noble’s) winning three games to go through. Marown captain Paul Dunn took his place, Phil Kerruish (Onchan) defeated home greener Dean Kipling, with Reg Temporaza (Noble’s) taking the last spot of the night.
Tuesday evening saw Steve Parker (Onchan) win three games to qualify, seeing off last year’s winner David Bradford (South Ramsey) along the way, with new Onchan team mate Frank Watson also making the cut. Home greeners John Gelling and Luke Hyland performed well to take the last two spots to qualify for finals night.
The final qualifying session on Wednesday was a fine evening heavily dominated by South Ramsey players, with Alan Moore seeing off Paul Kelly, Jenny Moore disposing of Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly, whilst James Teare defeated Neil Withers along the way to qualify. Home greener Celia Joughin took the last qualifying spot and was the third lady to reach finals night, just edging out another South Ramsey player Paul Routledge.
Thursday evening was finals night with the draw taking place live on the night, with the last 16 being played down to the winner. There was a good turnout to watch the conclusion of the competition.
Losing out at the last 16 stage were the Onchan trio of Phil Kerruish, Steve Parker and Frank Watson. Paul Dunn (Marown), Jimmy Sansom (Douglas), Reg Temporaza, David Proctor (Peel) and Nathan Hamilton (Castletown) also lost out.
In the quarter finals Colin Kelly gave no mercy to team mate John Gelling winning 21-5, James Teare won 21-13 against Celia Joughin. In the other half of the draw Alan Moore won 21-12 against Clare Cooper, whilst Jenny Moore would have a been a huge favourite to go through, however Luke Hyland had other ideas taking a good 21-16 win.
In the first semi final Colin Kelly won comfortably 21-11 against James Teare to reach the final, whilst club mate Luke Hyland carried on his good form seeing off Alan Moore with a 21-14 win.
The final was eagerly anticipated with neither player being able to get away from the other throughout the entire game, with Kelly playing some good weighted shots to stay in the game. Hyland did manage to go ahead 17-15 before Kelly’s experience pulled him through to take a hard earned 21-17 win to secure the title and £125 first prize.
The presentation was made by Neil Withers and Philip Kelly, with various spot prizes being awarded. Best junior went to Harry Barton, furthest lady went to Jenny Moore and Celia Joughin was the furthest Over 60’s player. Prizes were paid out to the last 16.
Thanks were also given to the sponsor Ardern & Druggan for supporting the competition, along with the Marown ladies for the excellent refreshments throughout the week.
Congratulations must go to Marown on a well run competition, which has is now a regular fixture in the bowling calendar to start the season.
2019 Season
Fixtures
All 2019 fixtures have been uploaded which you can browse in each section. Clicking a team from the fixture list will show you fixtures for that team only.
Opens
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.
Club Team Championship
Following on from the success last season the Club Team Championship competition is now open to Men and Ladies and does not clash with the other league matches. Teams will now consist of 14 players of any number of gender playing 6 singles and 4 doubles.
Captains
Some captains are still to be confirmed and details will be added to the website as soon as possible.
Men’s Fixture PDFs Downloads
The Men’s Association have taken the decision to no longer produce a fixture book. Using the links below you can download and print a PDF per club which has all the Men’s League, Club Team Championship and Mixed Team Championship fixtures and dates.
Free Week Nights
As the season is becoming more congested a number of week nights have been left free.
This is primarily to give contingency should any matches clash or be postponed. Clubs are free to schedule to use these dates for social evenings or club competitions. If however a league or cup match must be re-arranged and one of the dates used, this would take precedence.
Ranking Tables
Some updates are being made to the ranking section of the website and has been temporarily removed.
Durcan’s Win Juan Kelly Cup
Juan Kelly Cup Winners 2018
Marown Bowling Club held the Juan Kelly Cup last week with the competition in its second year being played under the excellent floodlights it was like playing in daylight.
The format was any competition 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 end shootout would take place to decide the winner.
The competition in this format improved on last years entry of 40 pairs, with 42 pairs entering. 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.
On Sunday evening 16 pairs played their qualifying night, with 26 pairs competing on the Monday evening this proved to be the most popular night to play.
The finals night was held on Wednesday evening, with a live re-draw taking place to determine who the pairings would play on the night.
The eventual winners were the father and son pairing of Bernie Durcan and Steve Durcan (+7), who mastered the green, defeating the home duo of Phil Kelly and Paul Kelly (+2) in the final to a 30-8 score line with the Marown men conceding the game with three ends still to play with the lead having become unassailable. The Durcan’s were helped massively by counting a four on end 10, which was a power end to score a huge eight points at a vital moment in the game, however this shouldn’t take away from their brilliant performance in the final to keep the Marown men down to single figures scoring just six points on their own green.
The Durcan’s were superb throughout the whole competition, taking out some good pairings along the way, and they don’t come any tougher than the South Ramsey pairing of John Kennish and David Bradford ending their challenge with a 21-17 win on Monday evening in the final qualifying game with Kennish and Bradford needing a big score on the power end to progress but just missing out.
Losing out in the semi-finals were Marown C Team captain Stephen Rundle and Celia Joughin (+10) who were beaten 16-21 to the runners up, Losing out to the Durcan’s in the semi-finals were the father and daughter pairing of Arnie Withers and Helen Withers (+9) who just needed to make another counting bowl on the final end to secure a spot in the final, however they just missed out agonisingly 23-24.
Losing quarter finalists were two South Ramsey pairings, Jenny Moore and James Teare (+6), along with Alan Moore and Glynn Hargraves (+3), Peel duo Tommy McMeiken and David Proctor (+6), along with the Noble’s pairing of Alison Keggen and Debbie Leece (+10).
At the conclusion of play the presentation was made by Neil Withers, 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.
Marown Seal Club Team Championship
Club Team Championship Winners 2018
Photo: Arnie WithersThe final of the inaugural Club Team Championship was held on Friday evening under the floodlights at Noble’s Park in front of a good crowd. Marown reached the final after sailing through their group games, whilst Onchan came through a tough group, sealing their place in the final after seeing off South Ramsey with a convincing win in their final group game. Marown started the final as favourites, and with the format being five singles games and three doubles games the draw would be crucial to Onchan’s hopes of pulling off an upset.
First off for Marown was Matthew Keggen winning 21-12 against Colin Spence, with Spence staging a mini-comeback after being 4-16 down before losing out. The first doubles game off was Paul Kelly and Neil Withers who were up against Kevin Quirk and Peter Slinger with the Marown men seeing off the Onchan pair 21-14 in a high quality game. Third game off was another doubles game with Harry Barton and John Kelly performing well to beat Mark Kelly and Edward Carlyle 21-10. The last game off from the first half of the match was another Marown win with Brian Kelly beating Bernie McPhee 21-18, which was the closest game of the night. At the halfway stage, the chalks were 84-54 with Marown holding a 30 point lead.
Fifth game off on the night was Peter Kelly who helped increase Marown’s lead to an unassailable 44 chalks thanks to a 21-7 win over Mike Alexander. Onchan replied with the biggest doubles win of the night with Jordan Cain and Rob Monk playing the short lengths well to seal a 21-8 victory against the experienced pairing of Phil Kelly and John Gelling. With the match now secured with Marown having scored enough chalks in the two games left on the green, Onchan then recorded their second win of the night with Matthew Quirk holding off a strong challenge from Juan Killip to record a 21-17 win. The last match of the night was between Colin Kelly and Neil Dunwell with Kelly recovering from 2-8 down to eventually win 21-15. Marown won by 33 chalks (151-118) winning 6-2 on games.
The presentation was made by Association Press Officer Glynn Hargraves who congratulated Marown on a deserved win, whilst also thanking Noble’s Bowling Club for hosting the final and providing refreshments. Marown’s Neil Withers then accepted the winners shield and also congratulated his team and thanked their supporters. With his Association hat on Withers then gave a bit of background to emphasise why the competition was introduced, with the idea of increasing involvement from across the teams within a club and also to help create a better atmosphere around the green.
Marown C Crowned Champions In Style
Marown C - 2018 Ellan Vannin Fuels Division 3 Champions
Photo: Arnie WithersMarown C were crowned champions of Ellan Vannin Fuels division three in their winner takes all game at home to Ballaugh B with a superb 9-1 win in front of a 60 plus crowd to gain promotion to division two in style.
Leading the way for the Crosby men was captain Stephen Rundle who dug in and kept his composure to see his game out 21-19 against John Kneen. The Marown men’s nerves would have been helped further winning three games 21-16 with Darren Kerruish, Dan Smith and Kevin Kelly beating Tony Quine, Phil Quayle and Fred Waggett respectively.
Jamie Joughin beat John Looney 21-5, with Karl Parker winning 21-9 against Percy Faragher. Steve Wilson had a fairly comfortable 21-14 win against Dickie Watson. John Bolton spared the whitewash for Ballaugh with a 21-14 win over Carey Dewhirst.
This is a great achievement for the team and indeed the whole club, who have introduced new players into the game, with this continuing this season with Kevin Kelly and Karl Parker taking the game up recently with both players contributing to the overall success of the team.
Castletown C finished in third spot, but may have been left wondering what might been having finished just 10 points off the top, with their cause not helped by having to give 15 walkovers to the opposition during the season, which will have cost them extra points on individual wins and the aggregate with having to give 21 chalks away before the match has started.
Peel D hosted Douglas C recording a 7-3 home win, with young Ryan Tate turning in a good performance to win 21-8 against James King, with Dad Steve Tate not to be outdone winning 21-6 against Les Quayle.
Onchan C travelled north over the mountain to take on South Ramsey D to record a good 2-8 away win. Home winners were Ian Moore who has secured the individual merit in division three following a fine season winning 18 games from 20 played, whilst younger brother Jay Moore beat Erwin Gelling 21-15. The home team performed well despite the defeat with Steve Kelly losing 17-21 to Kelvin McNicholl, skipper James Moore, Matthew Corkill and Richard Davies all losing 19-21 to David Clucas, Graham Atkinson and Brian Kelly respectively, whilst Franz ten Donkelaar just lost 20-21 to Denis Maxwell.
Finch Hill B were another team to end the season on a high with a 0-10 away win against bottom of the pile Douglas D who were forced to give three walkovers to the Finch Hill men.
Noble’s A Crowned Division Two Champions
Rayner Plate Winners 2018
Noble’s A sealed their place in division one for the 2019 season with a 6-4 away win against Finch Hill A, which was enough on the night to seal the title by six points. This concludes a successful season for the Noble’s men following their Rayner Plate victory earlier in the season. Long time leader in the merit chase Dave Pease suffered a 19-21 defeat to Tony Epifani.
Castletown B finished second in the table suffering a disastrous 3-7 home loss to Peel C, who managed to do the double over the southerners with these two results ultimately costing Castletown the league.
Port St Mary C took the bragging rights over their B Team with a 6-4 win, taking the aggregate by just five chalks to upset the higher ranked team.
Port Erin B hosted North Ramsey B with both teams missing a player the score ended 4-5 to the northerners. The visitors just missed out on an extra three points with Barry Teare and Gary Lenton losing out 19-21, whilst Alex Yates lost 20-21 to Alan Crebbin.
Ballaugh A put their away day woes to one side to brush aside Noble’s B with a resounding 1-9 win. John Keenan sealed the individual merit trophy in division two with a 21-15 win, capitalizing on the loss of Dave Pease.
Fourth placed Peel B hosted third placed Onchan B with the westerners unable to overtake Onchan they could have drawn level with them if they were to secure a maximum 10-0 win. The Peel men did manage to secure a good 7-3 win to end the season just three points behind Onchan, which also allowed them to finish three points ahead of Ballaugh A.