On Thursday 16th of July a good entry of 50 made their way to Port St Mary BC for the annual Dreswick Cup competition once again generously sponsored by Pat O’Meara and family of the Albert Hotel P.S.M. The day ran well in blustery but mostly dry conditions with the heavens only deciding to open as the final got underway, the player who handled the tricky conditions best at the end of the day was Port St Mary’s own Trevor Quayle who got the better of Marowns Neil Withers 21-15 in the final. At the semi final stage Trevor overcame a resurgent Dave Faragher (Castletown) who reached his second semi final of the week, while Neil got the better of the ever dangerous Dave “Dido” Kelly (South Ramsey). Fallers at quarter final stage were a couple of old campaigners in Ian kissack (Marown) and Dave “Barney” Kelly (Douglas) along with newer faces at this stage in the form of Stefan Kelly (South Ramsey) and Chris Oates of Port St Mary.

At the conclusion of play Roy Dixon president of the club gave his thanks to the sponsors as well as everyone else who had made the day a success especially the ladies of the club who once again but on a fantastic spread and also to Sean Lillee for running the sheet and the greenkeepers for supplying a tricky playing surface before presenting the prizes on behalf of the injured sponsor.

There was a stellar line up of 50 of the islands top bowlers at Peel on Saturday to contest the Town Cup.

Glynn Hargraves made it through a loaded top half of the draw to win the magnificent trophy with a 21-11 final win over homester Alec Taylor.

Hargraves, who was recovering from a spell out with a back injury, will be very pleased with his day as he picked up some magnificent scalps along the way including Peel legend Barney Kelly in the first round and Island regular Neil Withers in the semi-final.

Taylor should be very pleased with his days work to make it to the final as he fell just one short against a double Island Champion who was at the top of his game.

John Kennish ended a great week with another win this time lifting the Ken Williamson Trophy at former club Onchan with a 21-14 over Manx Championship finalist Trevor Quayle.

In the Semi-finals Kennish ended the challenge of home greener Kevin Quirk 21-16, whilst Quayle ended the run of another Kennish knocking out Andy 21-18, to ruin the final showdown that many would have paid to see.

Fallers at the quarter finals stage were Mike Hargraves, Stefan Kelly, Jordan Cain and Bernie Durcan.

David Bradford showed why he is amongst the favourites to win the June Festival with a brilliant display in the Jim Kernan Competition at South Ramsey on Saturday.

Bradford is fast becoming the favourite in almost all games he plays and showed why with a commanding final victory over visitor Mark Bramall. He was in control from the off and never really looked threatened as he added another trophy to his ever growing collection.

In the semi-finals Bradford ended the challenge of Barney Kelly, who himself had a great day taking the scalps of three former festival winners, Matt Gilmore, Colin Kelly and John Kennish.

Bramall who himself played excellently all day had to be at the top of his game to make the final as he just got the better of seasoned campaigner John Colbourne to book his final place.

Credit to South Ramsey for running a great competition on an immaculate green and special thanks go to George Brew for his continued sponsorship of one of the Islands premier competitions.

Warwick & Worcester’s Ben Harris won the Balacashtal Cup at the first time of asking with a thrilling 21-20 win over compatriot Steve Freer in the final at Castletown on Sunday.

Harris, a newcomer to the Island, improved with every bowl he sent on the tricky Castletown green to secure his first win of the week showing he is a genuine contender for both the main festival and the Friday night’s star studded finale, the South Ramsey Super 16.

Harris played well throughout and booked his place in the final with a quarter final 21-12 win over Mick Burns, followed up by a strong showing in the semis to eliminate the talented Mark Bramall 21-9.

Freer ended the challenge of popular local Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly, who has been showing fine form this weekend, in the quarter finals before getting the better of Alan Belsher 21-18 in the Semi’s.

Alan Moore from South Ramsey had a good run to the quarters before his quest for glory was cut short by Mark Bramall and Belsher knocked out teammate Jack Holland at the same stage.

Castletown should be commended for putting on another fabulous competition with 100 competitors on the day.

On Sunday the 14th of June an entry of 15 teams gathered at Port St Mary for the annual Mens Threesomes competition, once again kindly sponsored by Colas (I.O.M) Ltd. On a glorious sunny day and a running tricky green the Onchan team of Matthew Quirk, Kevin Quirk and Glynn Hargraves ran out the eventual winners with a comfortable 21-11 win in the final over Nigel Thomas, Ben Dugdale and Tony Dugdale. The latter team having come through a close semi final over the Marown Three of Colin Kelly, Mike Cain and Neil Withers. In the other semi the Onchan team had a slightly easier time of it against the old stalwarts of the competition in the form of another Marown team of Arnie Withers, Juan Kelly and Ian Kissack.

At the end of an entertaining days bowling, competition secretary Ewan Cooil thanked the greenkeeper and the ladies of the club for supplying a great playing surface and a wonderful supply of refreshments before introducing Ian Dunbar from Colas (I.O.M) Ltd to present the prizes to the successful teams. A good day was had by all.

Report by Ewan Cooil

Grown Green Bowls on the Isle of Man has seen resurgence as of late with a lot of development work taking place at all levels of the game. Neil Withers is working tirelessly to make the sport truly accessible from the grass roots up with the new ‘Bowls for All’ project.

The work he has started could see him meet, and potentially exceed, his aspirations of making the game more accessible by providing more coaches, more equipment and providing more sessions where newcomers to sport can try for free in the very near future.

Neil is looking to achieve his aims by sourcing funding to purchase necessary equipment and coaching aids, and subject to meeting the criteria requested this project will be a massive step forward for the sport.

He is also keen that clubs wanting to benefit from the scheme put something back and really open themselves up to people wanting to try the game. To achieve this he has tied it in with existing work in the bowls development plan to launch a charter standard.

Development officer Mark Kneen has adjusted the charter to encompass all the aspirations of the ‘Bowls for All’ scheme and a draft of the proposed three tiered charter will be circulated around clubs soon.

It is envisaged that clubs achieving level 1 Charter Club status will reap the rewards by receiving equipment and support to continually develop their club as a breeding ground for new players. Neil should be commended by his vision, foresight and tireless effort to achieve his goal which will definitely seal a victory for bowls on the Isle of Man.

 David ‘Drof’ Bradford (Onchan) etched his name into the record books as he beat Trevor Quayle (Port St Mary) 21-15 to win the Canada Life International Manx Championship. The final was a breath taking conclusion to an enthralling two days action with both players playing their part.

Bradford, who is fast becoming a colossus of the local game, added the coveted trophy to his ever increasing collection and despite being only Thirty years old will be relieved to have got this monkey off his back, as many past greats have failed to get their hands on the illusive holy grail of Manx bowls.

In the final, despite an even start, Bradford eventually moved through the gears quicker surging into a 16-8 lead over Quayle, who had played like a champion all day. Just when it looked like he might be running away with it his opponent dug deep, and using all his resolve mounted a spirited fight back. It was not to be for Trevor, and after seeing one of his best leads beaten at 20-15 adrift; he saw his second bowl go through a seemingly impossible gap to fall just short of his own quest for glory.

Whilst Bradford deserves all the plaudits and accolades afforded to him, spare a thought for Quayle who was at times equally brilliant over the course of the weekend. He started finals day in ruthless form with a 21-8 win over Mike Hargraves (Castletown) before turning on the style to eliminate eight times champion John Kennish (South Ramsey) in the quarter finals and followed this up with a hard fought 21-18 win over double champion Glynn Hargraves (Onchan) to book his final berth.

In my mind Trevor has been one of the most underrated players in the local game over the past few years, and this final appearance comes as no shock to me, and I by no means think it will be the last time we see him vying for silverware on the big stage. As they say in bowls ‘next end lad’ and I expect to see Trevor straight back in and gunning for glory the next time he steps onto the green.

Our champion had a trickier start to the day, however, and trailed 16-19 to former champion Neil Withers (Marown). With the scores finely poised at 19-19, and Neil lying in two for game his luck changed as a strike he sent flicked off the short wood to cut his opponent down to one and save game. It didn’t stop there and with him lying one next end to go to all but across his opponent went all out for the win with a questionable full blooded strike at his bowl, and in the process took his own wood off the green to see Bradford through by the narrowest of margins.

It takes a champion to come through at seemingly impossible odds and Bradford is a true champion. In the quarter finals he was too hot to handle for Alan Moore (South Ramsey) running away to a 21-9 win before meeting a battling Ewan Cooil (Port St Mary) in the semi-finals who made him work all the way to get over the line at 21-16. Cooil can also be pleased with his weekends work and he played some great bowls, none more so than beating home greener Paul Kelly (Douglas) 21-10 in the quarters.

With an entry of over 60 players for the first time in a good few years there were many highlights of the weekend but two players who shone for me were Michael Collister (Port St Mary) and Mervin Sayle (Finch Hill).

Despite his tender age Collister has struggled in the past few seasons, since winning the Clague Kermeen Trophy, and his performance was a real return to form and he should be very proud of his efforts. He not only qualified for finals days but made it to the quarter finals where he pushed Glynn Hargraves all the way 21-20.
Sayle, who is now playing in division one, showed his true pedigree with the upset of day one eliminating two time champion Kevin Quirk (Onchan) 21-9 with a devastating display.

At the conclusion of the competition IOMCCGBA President Phil Kerruish thanked Douglas for hosting the competition and Canada Life International for their continued support and sponsorship of the event, but the day belonged to Bradford.

It is the end to what has been a long wait for him after he sprung to the fore in 2002 by becoming the youngest ever winner of an Isle of Man Bowls Festival, at the tender age of seventeen. Since then he has emerged as true talent with the potential to reach the highest level, not only on our shores but also in the UK. Now he has a title under his belt the only question I have left to ask is how many more will he add?

His win qualifies him for the British Senior Merit and the famous Champion of Champions competition and with the Island team now represented at Senior County Level I know he will turn a few heads on every green he steps on. Well done Drof, this is your moment lad and you deserve to enjoy every second of it.