Lynda Cadamy (Port Erin) will represent the Isle of Man in the British Merit after winning the Qualifier at Finch Hill Bowling Club on Saturday 14^th April.

In the final Lynda beat Marown bowler Lil Smith 21-10.  Losing in the semi finals were Debbie Leece (Nobles) and Caroline Whitehead (Port Erin)

Last seasons Non Winners trophy took place at Nobles on Saturday 7th April. It was great to see a field of 20 ladies supporting this competition as it was previously cancelled in previous years due to lack of entries.

All quarter finals were very close with Trish Bull losing 17, Caroline Whitehead 18, Mavis Franks 17 and Rosie Winkle 19.

In the semi-finals and the game of the day Lil Smith took on Debbie Leece. Both players were inseparable for the entire match with neither able make a break away. At 20-19 down Lil Smith brought the game level once again but lost out in the final end to Debbie 21-20.

The second semi-final was contested between Sylvia Kennuagh and Lynda Cadamy. At 10-8 down Lynda got hold of the Jack and moved into a 17-10 lead and the game finished 21-12 to Lynda.

In the Final Debbie set a standard high and went into a 18-6 lead, Lynda fought back towards the second half of the game but Debbie closed in and won the competition with a 21-12 victory.

Thanks go to Nobles for hosting the competition and to Heather and the association for running the competition.

The weather was not so favourable for the Castletown Ladies’ Open, sponsored by the Bowling Green Café, on Sunday 3 September.

Despite the conditions the entry of 36, which included several ladies over for the September Festival, enjoyed a great day’s bowling.

All games were played in a friendly and sporting spirit, particularly the final between local bowler Jenny Moore and visitor Angela Gaut, Wrockwardine Wood. Angela started strongly taking a 17-11 lead before Jenny responded, pulling back to close the gap convincingly. The final end at 19-20 was led by Angela but won by Jenny, resulting in a final score of 21-19 in Jenny‘s favour.

The prizes, sponsored by Ellen Corkish of the Bowling Green café, were presented by Castletown club chairman, Ron Williams..

There was a field of 31 for the Essie Quayle ladies’ singles played at Peel on Saturday 2 September. The weather was sunny, although a cold breeze got up during the afternoon, and the green was running well.

There were some very close matches, particularly in the first two rounds where several matches went to 21-18 or 21-19.

Some notable performances in the early stages saw Win Collister come through against Joyce Kelly in the first round and mary Alderson in the second and Shirley Corrin coming through to meet her in the semi-finals after seeing off Maureen Payne and Lyn Bolton.

Quarter-finals: Philippa Taylor 21, Margaret Tasker 15; Paula Firth 21, Lil Smith 16; Shirley Corrin 21, Win Collister 17; Mary Moffatt 21, Celia joughin 10.
The first semi-final was close with Philippa taking an early lead being 13-10 ahead after six ends. Paula then won the next five ends to make it 16-13 in her favour, before Philippa took five ends to reach “all but”. A further single for Paula was not enough, Philippa going through 21-17.

In the other semi-final Shirley found a mark along the edge of the green which she played beautifully. Mary, like Shirley’s opponents throughout the afternoon, had no answer.

Semi-finals: Philippa Taylor 21, Paula Firth 17; Shirley Corrin 21, Mary Moffatt 9

In the final it was Philippa who found a mark, across the crown, that Shirley could not master, coming through to win 21-8.

The presentation was made by club president, Heather Horsburgh, who thanked those who had entered and those spectators who had stayed to the end. She also thanked all those who had helped in any way with the smooth running of the afternoon.

Another September Festival has come and gone, with the weather being unkind for most of the week, although we did for once have a dry and sunny finals day.

In the main competition ten of our ladies got through to the last 32 played at Nobles 1 on Thursday afternoon, but despite some good performances only four made it through to the last sixteen.

Caroline Parker had played well all week and continued to fight in the last 16, eventually coming through 21-17 against Sally Clee (Wrockwardine Wood), while Mary Moffatt faced Julie Pearce (Meole Brace), who had been impressive all week, just losing out 21-19. Lyn Bolton was involved in a ding-dong battle with Dawn Bray (Ossett Flying Horse), taking the game 21-20 to progress to the quarter-final, while Helen Martin lost out 21-16 to Lynsey Gorman (NBQV).

In the quarter-finals Caroline came up against the eventual winner, Angela Gaut, and found it was just one game too far, going out 21-11, while Lyn met festival perennial Veronica Lyon (Beechams Unison), and had another close encounter, getting through to the semi-finals 21-19.

Lyn’s progress was halted by Anita Richardson (Hoylake and Melrose) who went through 21-11 to meet Angela Gaut in the final, where the two of them had a nail-biting battle, Angela taking the trophy 21-20.

Congratulations go to all the Manx ladies’, particularly Lyn Bolton who picked up the Blanche Kaye Trophy for the best Manx Lady.

Thursday morning saw the final stages of the Ladies’ Tourism Competition with three Manx ladies’ reaching the quarter-finals. Unfortunately two of them faced each other, with Elaine Moore pipping Philippa Taylor 21-20, while Margaret Tasker also had a close match against Julie Pearce before going out 21-20. In the semi-final it was Elaine’s turn to face Julie Pearce, the Meole Brace lady going through to the final 21-19. It had been a morning of close matches and that continued into the final where Alison Cotton, facing club-mate Julie, came through to win 21-20.

In the Open Doubles Elaine Moore and Kim Hargraves reached the quarter-finals, where they went out 11-7 to the eventual runners-up, Craig Grant (Thongsbridge) and Duncan Reeves (Netherton Cons), while in the VisitIsleofman.com Flyer, Helen Martin went out in the semi-final to Michael Coupe (Hoghton BC).

In the quarter-finals of the Ladies’ Doubles Caroline Parker and Veronica Lyon beat Marjorie Haigh (Hightown Sports) and Joyce Jones (Syke BC) 11-6 to set up a semi-final meeting with Lynda Cadamy and Sandra Beveridge (Lansil) who came through their quarter-final against Debbie Leece and Carleen Doody-Millington (Meole Brace) 11-7.

In the semi-final it was Lynda and Sandra who progressed to the final, 11-4, where they lost to Jacqueline Owen (Whitefield BC) and Eileen Pye (Acregate) 11-7..

The Dorothy Piearce Memorial Pairs were held at Grange Park , Warrington on Saturday 12 August, where the Isle of Man was represented by Philippa Taylor and Joyce Ogden, who put up a very creditable performance.
In the first round they faced the formidable Mid-Cheshire pairing of Jackie Ollier and Jean Starkey and made their way through to the last 16, winning 21-14. This matched them up with the reigning champions from Merseyside, Lynsey Gorman, who is well known on the island as one of our regular Bowls Festival participants, and her partner Anita Richardson. After a hard fought battle, Lynsey and Anita triumphed 21-16 and then progressed to the final where they retained the title.