Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Sunday saw the holding of the Douglas Town Cup Ladies and Men’s Singles hosted by Douglas Bowling Club at the Villa. The Men’s event started at 10:30 in the morning with 52 entries, with the Ladies competition starting later in the day had an entry of 22 Ladies competing. Entries in both competitions were up by 13 overall on last year.

In the Men’s singles at the quarter final stage Neil Withers (Marown) beat Trevor Quayle (Port St Mary) 21-15, whilst Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey) beat Glenn Boland (Marown) 21-12. In the other half of the draw David Bradford (South Ramsey) won 21-14 against Paul Kelly (Marown), whilst Alex Hampson (Noble’s) who was the furthest Junior in the competition lost out 11-21 to Peter Jones (Marown).

At the semi-final stage Withers took an early 13-8 lead, then led 18-14 against Hargraves, with the players exchanging doubles over four ends. The latter fought back to lead 19-18, then led a side toucher only for Withers to beat this bowl and then made a brilliant two to lead 20-19. Hargraves then scored a two to take his place in the final with a 21-20 win.

In the other semi-final neither Bradford nor Jones were able to pull away from the other. Jones made his move taking the lead 17-16 having scored two successive doubles, with Bradford responding with his own two doubles and a single to see the game out 21-17.

In the Men’s final the early ends were keenly contested, with tight ends, it was Bradford who took the lead 12-8, playing two brilliant bowls to score two and lead 12-8. Hargraves picked up a single, then led a four-inch bowl into the corner, with Bradford playing another great bowl to lie one inch to the side of the jack to score one. Hargraves picked up three consecutive singles to close the deficit to just one chalk at 12-13, was counting for one on the following end, with Bradford picking up the jack with his last bowl. A change of tactics saw Bradford play the edges, pushing through the greener parts of the green, which caught out his South Ramsey teammate on more than one end, with Bradford running out with a well-deserved 21-12 victory.

In the Ladies quarter finals Lyn Bolton (Marown) lost out 13-21 to Louise Tebay (Ballaugh), whilst Janet Monk (Mooragh Park) prevailed 21-18 against Debbie Leece (Marown). In the other half of the draw home greener Paula Garrett held off a fightback from Kim Hargraves (South Ramsey) to win 21-18, whilst Jayne Smith beat Marown teammate Lynda Cadamy to book her place in the next round.

In the Ladies semi-finals Monk got the better of Tebay with a comfortable 21-10 win, whilst Garrett edged home 21-20 against Smith in a keenly contested game to take her place in the final.

The Final got underway with Garrett taking control of the game throughout, whilst scoring three doubles of her own, keeping Monk down to scoring six singles, whilst never allowing the Mooragh Park player to win two consecutive ends to runout with a brilliant 21-12 victory to pick up her third Douglas Town Cup win.

In a somewhat bizarre turn of events Bradford and Garrett have both won the Douglas Town Cup on three occasions each, with both players winning their respective competition in 2014, 2017, and 2024.

At the conclusion Gordy Wynne-Smythe thanked all those who supported the event and the Douglas Club Members for their assistance throughout the day. The club were happy to support one of their Junior members Katie Jacobs, who had requested to donate the funds raised to the Name a Guide Dog fundraiser with £500 being raised. Gordy went on to thank Jaks & Barbary Coast for sponsoring the event, with Director Steve Pickett presenting the prizes.