Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Noble’s Bowling Club hosted the Thurlwell Bowl on Saturday with a good entry of 50 taking part after a great week of Festival bowls, with the Noble’s greens being widely praised by local & visiting bowlers throughout the week.

Losing out at the quarter final stage were home greener Mark Bradshaw who lost out 9-21 to Marown captain Paul Dunn, Margie Tasker (Port St Mary) was defeated 16-21 by South Ramsey’s Glynn Hargraves. In the other half of the draw Lee Dawson (South Ramsey) beat Grahem Moore (Noble’s) 21-15, whilst Peel man Rob Middleton ended the hopes of Glenn Boland (Marown) with a good last end to win 21-19.

In the semi-final Hargraves made the better start against Dunn to lead 11-7, then settled for a longer length to extend the lead to 17-12. The Marown man fought back level the game up at 18-18, then conceded a single with Hargraves playing through to take out Dunn’s counting bowl. On the following end with the South Ramsey man leading 19-18 and counting two for game Dunn bowled in to level the game up once more at 19-19. Two great bowls from the Marown captain on the next end had Dunn lying game himself with both bowls next to the jack and touching each other, a strike from Hargraves came off perfectly to go 20-19 ahead. On the next end a good lead bowl from the South Ramsey captain was unbeaten to seal a place in the final with a 21-19 win.

In the other semi-final between Middleton and Dawson the game was keenly contested in the early stages, with Middleton stretching away in the second half of the game to seal a 21-14 win and his first appearance in a final of a singles open.

The final started with Hargraves being favourite, however it was Middleton who made a strong start to lead 9-6 after four ends, the lead could have been bigger with Hargraves taking the jack off when lying two down for a dead end. With the ends being exchanged in the early part of the game neither player could get away from the other with the score being level at 10-10 and 11-11. The next two ends Middleton played four great bowls with Hargraves just missing strikes on both ends for the Peel man to lead 15-11. Hargraves got back in and headed for the corners that had served him well earlier in the day to turn the game around to lead 17-15.

A strong response followed with three consecutive singles from Middleton. Hargraves got back in with a single, then played two good bowls on the following end to lead 20-18. On the following end Hargraves played a good lead six inches to the side of the jack, which Middleton played out with his first bowl, the latter made two with his second bowl for a one end shootout with the score tied once again at 20-20. Middleton played his lead 18 inches away from the jack, which Hargraves used to count for one. With his last bowl the Peel man got inside the jack land with Hargraves winning an entertaining final 21-20.

The presentation was made by competition secretary Tina Hampson who thanked the club members who had helped with the running of the competition. The winners were awarded with IOM Steam Packet vouchers, with Juan Qualtrough presenting the prizes. In his speech Hargraves congratulated Middleton for a great performance.