Onchan showed last week how they are ready to mount a serious on the two sides above them in men’s crown green bowling league. In week 13 of the Ellan Vannin Fuels-sponsored league, they turned out a very strong team at Castletown B on Monday night when they came away with a 10-0 victory. In doing so they closed the gap on the leading two Division One sides by a single point.
The whitewash included an impressive 21-3 win for Mike Thomas and identical 21-9 score lines for Robert Monk, Jordan Cain and Matthew Quirk.

The problem for the chasing teams is that reigning champions South Ramsey A don’t look like they are about give any ground away to the teams below them. Last week they took on local rivals North Ramsey A at the Mooragh and handed out a clinical 9-1 beating, Steve Walmsey won 21-13 for the North but that was there only joy of the night as they were firmly put in their place.

Second placed team Marown A took on Douglas B at the Villa and ended the night with nine points which included impressive 21-3 and 21-4 wins for Bob Clarke and Paul Dunn respectively.

Peel A were held 5-5 by Castletown A over in the Sunset City, a good result for the visitors but the home side were left feeling they should have done better after losing ground on the teams above them.

South Ramsey B entertained Port St Mary A but could only manage two winners on the night as the away side powered to an 8-2 win with Trevor Quayle maintaining his unbeaten run. Ballaugh A were at home to Douglas A with the Villa men having much the better of the evening with a solid 8-2 win .

In Division Two league leaders Onchan B were at home to Peel B and ended the night with 7-3 win, but second placed Marown B had an impressive 9-1 win over Finch Hill A closing the gap to One point on the leaders.

Noble’s B in third place looking to close in on the top two teams had a 8-2 home win over Port Erin B to keep up their challenge. In the remaining games Post St Mary C had a good 8-2 win over Onchan C, Port St Mary B defeated North Ramsey B 7-3 at the Mooragh.

Lying at the bottom of Division Two Douglas C suffered a crushing 10-0 home defeat at the hands of Noble’s A which sets them three points adrift at the foot of the table.

Division Three fixtures saw Peel D take on Peel C in what turned out to be a well supported and fiercely competitive game, it resulted in 5-5 draw with Peel D down 3-5 on games but winning the aggregate but the five points keep Peel C level with Ballaugh C at the top of the table. At the wrong end of the table Finch Hill B and Douglas D both suffered heavy defeats.

On the day his daughter, Shelley, won the Ladies Championship the virtually unstoppable John Kennish added Castletown’s Cain Cup to his tally of six open victories already this summer, a tally that also includes the Manx Championship.

Playing a mixture of short and long lengths throughout the day the South Ramsey stalwart triumphed 21-9 over Marown’s Phil Kelly in the final having previously seen off teammate David Bradford in the semis while ‘Rambo’ Kelly had seen off Tom Kelly (Peel) in the other last four game.

From an impressive field of 37 entrants, with all games 21-up off scratch, the losers in the last eight were Peter Collins (Port St Mary), Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey), Bernie Durcan from Port Erin and also Ian Watson from the home club.

The Castletown club also decided to hold some spot-prize competitions and the winners here were Dylan Marsh and Glenn Boland who shared the best Junior prize, John Ruscoe whose name was drawn out from all those players who lost in their first game while Durcan doubled up by taking the best over-60 prize. Kennish was also a double winner as he, not surprisingly, also won the best break prize – quite apt really for a man who is also the Island’s snooker champion.

At the end of the day the home chairman Hilary Kermode combined with club treasurer Linda Richman, who did a sterling job throughout in running the event, and between them they presented all the prizes.

With TT week over all three divisions featured this week in the Ellan Vannin Fuels sponsored Mens League before another week off for the June Bowling Festival.

Tie of the round on paper was Onchan A vs Port St Mary A. Port St Mary had two of their strongest players missing and Onchan eased to a 7-3 win beating the southerners by 39 chalks. Matthew Quirk and Jordan Cain both won to single figures and Trevor Quayle maintained his 100% record. Stand-in and stand-out performer was Steve Franks who beat Phil Kerruish 21-18.

Title favourites and defending champions South Ramsey A picked up a comfortable 8-2 win on the road at Castletown A. Dave Hollingworth beat Stefan Kelly and Peter Oates came from 18-12 down against Dave ‘Dido’ Kelly running out 21-18 to salvage some points for the Balley Chashtal men.

Marown A remain second after their visit to Mooragh Park to play North Ramsey A winning both halves of the match 3-1 to take the aggregate and an 8-2 win back to Crosby. The final match score doesn’t reflect a couple of the games with both Neil Withers and Colin Kelly lying game down before winning 21-19 and 21-20 respectively. Geoff Porter and Tony Smart picked up wins for the home side.

Peel Sunset A bounced straight back from losing last week to defeat Port Erin A 9-1. There were big wins for Peel in most of the games but Seamus Whelan 20 and Steve Durcan 19 came close to snatching some precious points. Peel remain third but sit out the next round of matches and will wait to see where they are at the half way stage.

Douglas A went over the mountain to face South Ramsey B and despite winning 7-3 will feel they missed out on a 9-1 win having lost two games 21-20 with Ben Dugdale and Sid Bolton sneaking over the line against former home greeners Gary Conwell and Andy Kennish.

Douglas B remain at the foot of the table but clawed a couple of points back by beating relegation rivals Castletown B 6-4

In Division Two Onchan B still lead the way at the top at the after a 7-3 away win at North Ramsey B.

Nobles B faced up against their A team and incredibly won 8-2 to keep themselves in third position and challenging for promotion.

Port St Mary C were hoping to create a similar derby upset against their B team but it wasn’t to ‘B’ as they went down 7-3 and by a large 44 chalk margin. Port St Mary B finally close to within a point of the C team in the league and will be hoping to kick on after a poor first half of the season.

Finch Hill A have struggled making their home green a fortress this season, but will be happier following a 7-3 win over promoted side Port Erin B.

The gap now at the bottom of Division Two is over 20 points with both Douglas C and Onchan C well off the pace. Douglas C went down 9-1 away to Peel B whilst Onchan C lost 8-2 home to Marown B. Both will be staring down the barrels of relegation in September without a massive turnaround.

A similar gap exists at the bottom of Division 3 with both Finch Hill B and Douglas D over 20 points behind their nearest rivals. Douglas D lost 9-1 at home to Peel D and South Ramsey D beat Finch Hill B 7-3

Another club derby took place this week with Ballaugh B taking on their C team who sit 20 points ahead of them in the league. The match must have been a thriller with the two sides playing out a true draw 4-4 on games and 136-136 on the chalks. Youngster Patrick Grant continued his impressive form beating Dicky Watson 21-20 in a game which was the difference between a 5-5 draw and a 7-3 loss.

With Ballaugh C drawing Peel C leapfrogged into top spot with a crushing 9-1 165-108 victory over Nobles C. Marown C who started the season well, have slipped off the pace in their last couple of games and lost at home to Castletown C 8-2

With a week off for festival the league will return on the 26th June for round 13 and will complete the first half of the season. No matter what results are thrown up South Ramsey A will be top of the League going into the second half of the season and are favourites to retain their title. Marown A and Onchan A will fight all the way for top spot and Peel A, Douglas A and Port St Mary A will not give up their own pursuit easily of a top three finish.

The week of the 26th also sees the Quarter Finals of the Rayner Shield and Plate. Tie of the round in the shield sees Port St Mary A making the trip away to South Ramsey A who have not lost a home match since July 2015. On that night it was Port St Mary A who defeated them 7-3 picking up the aggregate by a single chalk.

In the Plate Port St Mary B have setup a southern derby against Port Erin B and the sole remaining Division One team Ballaugh A are away to Onchan C.

With it being T.T. week only the first division fixtures were played on Tuesday evening, in windy conditions following the heavy rain earlier in the day, the bowling green’s held up well.

Peel A made the short journey to Crosby to face Marown A, with Peel looking to consolidate second place in the league, as they are due to sit out a fixture shortly they would have been looking to take advantage of Marown having two of their regulars away on holiday. Despite this Marown were able to use their home advantage with a convincing 9-1 win over the Peel men, with captain Darren Young being the only winner, and Tom Kelly coming the closest to picking up another point for his team before losing out 21-18 to Mark Moorley.

Onchan A had a 9-1 win over Ballaugh A, with Rob Monk winning 21-1 & in doing so took home an £80 kitty that has been building up all season due to the way the team kitty works. The lone winner for the visitors was Barry McDonald with a 21-19 win.

South Ramsey A had the unenviable task of playing their B Team, with the B Team hoping to get the bragging rights over the A Team, however despite a 9-1 victory for the A Team it was not as comfortable a score line as it would appear with Chas Grills managing to get home 21-20 over James Teare, whilst Alan Moore also edged his game 21-19 over Sid Bolton. George Brew was able to spare the B Teams blushes with his own 21-20 win over Stefan Kelly.

Port Erin A will have their spirits lifted considerably, following the visit of Douglas B, with the fourth 9-1 victory of the evening, which helped lift them above Castletown B by a point and out of the bottom two. Shaun Seal was the only winner for Douglas B winning 21-19 over Bernie Durcan to prevent a whitewash for the visitors.

In a high scoring game Castletown A will have been disappointed to lose out 6-4 at home to North Ramsey A, by just five chalks, this was not helped by missing two of their first team players on the night.

Finally in the closest game of the night Douglas A hosted Port St Mary A, with the match finishing in a true draw, being level 4-4 on games and each team scoring 134 chalks, to each take an aggregate point. Trevor Quayle managed to hold onto his place at the top of the individual merit following a 21-19 victory, whilst Gary Conwell returned to winning ways and Ewan Cooil had a good 21-13 win over Stuart Garrett. Paul Skelly won 21-4 over Andy Kennish.

Port St Mary hosted the popular Men’s Triples on Sunday, with 17 teams taking part it was Jordan Cain, Bob Clark and Matthew Quirk who retained the Cafe Bar Two-Six & Isle of Man Flight Training sponsored Threesomes Cup with a victory over the South Ramsey trio of John Kennish, Alan Moore and Glynn Hargraves.

Losing semi-finalists were the Marown Team consisting of Walter McCarthy, Colin Kelly and Tom Kelly who came back from 20-11 down to just lose out 21-18 to the South Ramsey men.

In the other semi-final the eventual winners did well to come back from 19-14 down to win 21-19 over home greeners Tim Williams, Chris Oates and Trevor Quayle.

The final started with the younger players, Cain, Clark and Quirk who took the first two ends to go 9-6 up, before their opponents replied with a single and then a five to go 13-9 ahead. The lads hit back with a three to claw themselves back into the game at 13-12. From there the South Ramsey men went 15-13 ahead, lying four before Clark played a superb bowl to sit Moore out and Hargraves failing with two attempts to trail the block. Last years winners then used all their know how to see the game out to win 21-16 for a deserved victory.

The presentation was made by club president Ken Karran, who thanked the sponsors, the people who ran the competition, along with the ladies for the refreshments and the team who prepared the green.

Saturday saw a quality field of 28 pairs of all ages take to the green at Finch Hill in what were far from pleasant weather conditions.

A number of Island players were entered and made quick work of their first round matches, particularly the pairing of David Bradford and John Kennish who won 21-10 against Adrian Skinner and Rob Cowley. In the other first round matches, Matthew Keggen and Robert Monk had a good win (21-11) against Les Brookes and Reg Tampaza, as did Peter Hughes and Arthur Halsall who came back from 13-14 down with 8 points in 4 ends to take the match 21-14 and there was a similar story with Steve Kelly and David Proctor as they came back from 16-19 down with 5 points from the last 4 ends to win 21-19. There were also some very close matches as Alec Taylor and Derek Allen beat Eddie Carlyle and Nathan Hamilton by a single point and Roy Murphy and Peter Karran also beat Bod and Glenn Boland by the same margin. Father and son team of Glynn and Ryan Hargraves had a close match with Frank Watson and Jerome Surridge but narrowly lost out 21-18.

In the second round John Kennish and David Bradford had an even more impressive win against Derek Allen and Alec Taylor winning 21-8. Home pairing of John Harris and Sefton Dent had a good win over Peter Smith and Peter Woods by 21-15, helped by a 4 pointer in the final end, while Steve Kelly and David Proctor beat Jeff Wilson and Bob Berry by the same score. The other local pairing of Peter Hughes and Arthur Halsall were unlucky to lose by the single point to Frank Watson and Jerome Surridge as were Steve Waters and James Teare who also lost by the same margin to Thomas Keggen and Steve Hall and a similar scoreline saw Brian Kelly and Harry Barton overcome Matthew Keggen and Robert Monk. Arnie Withers and Mikey Collister came close but eventually lost out to another father and son team of Colin and Tom Kelly 21-18 while Neil Withers and Paul Dunn overcame Roy Murphy and Peter Karran 21-17.

John Kennish and David Bradford got the quarter finals off to a fast start as they beat John Harris and Sefton Dent by 21-8 but other matches were closer as Steve Kelly and David Proctor overcame Neil Withers and Paul Dunn 21-15 and Tom and Colin Kelly beat Thomas Keggen and Steve Hall 21-14. The last quarter final was a much closer affair and Brian Kelly and Harry Barton must have thought they were on for a win but got stuck on 20 points for four ends only to see Jerome Surridge and Frank Watson pip them at the post with a 3 pointer in the final end.

The semi-finals saw John Kennish and David Bradford take on Steve Kelly and David Proctor and once again the quality of play from Kennish and Bradford was just too much for Kelly and Proctor as they ran out comfortable winners 21-12.

The other semi-final was between the in form father and son team of Tom and Colin Kelly and the pairing of Frank Watson and Jerome Surridge who had won their last two matches by a single point, and once again the match went with the form book as the Kelly’s won the match 21-11.

With a cloudy sky and increasing wind, conditions were far from ideal but the quality of the bowls in the final was exceptional as some of the Islands best players took to the green. It was the Kelly’s who took an early hold on the match leading 12-7 and 15-11 helped by their corner to corner play. However, when Kennish and Bradford had the jack they were prepared to shorten the lengths to disrupt the Kelly’s rhythm and at one point went ahead 16-15. The Kelly’s then got hold of the jack and once they went corner to corner again they bagged another 5 points in three ends to lead 20-16 but couldn’t finish off the match as Kennish and Bradford regained the jack. Returning to the shorter length paid dividends once again for Kennish and Bradford and they made no mistake as they reeled off 5 points in the next three ends to take the match and overall competition 21-20.

The prize presentation was made by Ken Kinrade, Competition Secretary for Finch Hill with the losing semi finalists receiving £20 Newsbeat vouchers, the losing finalists £50 Newsbeat vouchers and the winners £100 Newsbeat vouchers and the R H Green Cup.

Special thanks go to our generous sponsors Newsbeat, to John Harris for preparation of the green and to Greeba Paramour and Peter Hughes for keeping everyone fed and watered throughout the afternoon and to Kevin Skillicorn for stewarding and to all those who helped make this a very successful competition.

Post Written by Ken Kinrade