Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

An entry of 45 took part in the Association Cup hosted by Marown Bowling Club.

The winner was home greener Colin Kelly who held off the strong challenge of South Ramsey captain Glynn Hargraves with a hard fought 21-17 win. Hargraves had the better of the early part of the game leading 12-9 and 13-11 only for Kelly to get in on his favoured corners and take the lead 17-13. Hargraves fought back to lie one behind at 16-17 with Kelly just missing with his reaching bowls two ends running. Hargraves then led a good bowl nine inches to the side of the jack only for Kelly to just sneak between the bowl and the jack to count one. Kelly followed this up with a double to go 20-16 ahead with Hargraves getting back in on the next end. At 17-20 Kelly played a good first bowl, which Hargraves couldn’t beat allowing Kelly to secure the Association Cup to hold the Associations top two trophies this season to reaffirm his dominance of the men’s game.

Both games at the semi-final stage were well contested with Paul Kelly just losing out 19-21 to Hargraves with young Sam Clague again reaching the semi-final stage in this competition only to lose to the same score (19-21) to Colin Kelly.

Falling at the quarter final stage were Paul Dunn (Marown) to team mate Paul Kelly 20-21, Neil Withers (Marown) lost to Hargraves 19-21, David Bradford (South Ramsey) also lost out 20-21 to Colin Kelly, whilst another home greener Jamie Joughin performed well before losing out to Clague.

The presentation was made by Association Chairman Neil Withers who thanked everyone who had helped throughout the day and to the ladies for putting on the refreshments. A special mention was also given to the team who prepare the green due to the improvement since the start of the season.