Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

South Ramsey hosted the Manx Masters on Sunday, one of the highlights of the Manx bowls calendar with four separate competitions taking place throughout the day. The weather in the morning was slightly better than forecast with rain holding off for most of the competition.

JP Corry Young Manx Masters

The Young Manx Masters was contested by seven players – with five girls and two boys. This competition was played in a round robin format playing six ends with the last end played as a ‘power’ end with points scored counting double. After a good morning of bowls, it was Bailey McMullan who was the runaway winner with 56 points, to become the first Young Manx Masters winner to retain the trophy in her last year in this category. The runner up with 42 points was Enya Christian (Marown) who also scored particularly well in her games.

JP Corry Junior Manx Masters

The Junior Manx Masters was played as a straight knockout 21up off a handicap of +6 for the older and more experienced players with 12 players braving the early morning start.

The title was won for the first time by Sam Colquitt (Noble’s) following his win in the Young Manx Masters competition in 2018, as he beat clubmate Alex Hampson 21-18 in an entertaining final, with the furthest anyone got ahead in the game was Alex at 13-10 halfway through the game. With Alex leading 18-17, Sam dug deep to see the game out with four singles to secure a 21-18 victory.

Losing out at the semi-final stage was pre-tournament favourite Madison McMullan (Mooragh Park) to Colquitt with the latter putting in a brilliant performance to seal a 21-16 win and a place in the final. Losing out in the other semi-final was Lola Tebay (Ballaugh) by the finest of margins 20-21 to Alex Hampson.

At the quarter final stage Colquitt comfortably beat Dylan Marsh (Port Erin) 21-13, McMullan won 21-11 against Aalish Moore (Castletown), Alex stormed to a 21-7 win over Lacey McMullan (Mooragh Park), whilst Tebay beat Alex Colquitt Noble’s 21-16.

The standard of play in both events was excellent and some of the bowls played would not have been out of place in the senior events taking place in the afternoon.

JP Corry Isle of Man supported the event once again with the prizes presented by Keith Quane. All competitors who took part received a prize, with Saskia Tebay receiving a special prize for the young player who had smiled the most all morning. Thanks were given to everyone who had helped throughout the morning.

Once the Junior competitions concluded the Felton’s sponsored Men’s and Ladies events got underway with the Ladies event being an invitation of 16 players, whilst the Men’s event had 32 invited to play.  Once again home greeners forfeited the jack on the first end to visiting bowlers.

Ladies Manx Masters

In the Ladies event losing out at the quarter final stages were home greener Gill Dixon 15-21 to teammate Jenny Moore, whilst Madison McMullan (Mooragh Park) battled well before losing out 18-21 to Clare Cooper (Marown).

In the other half of the draw Louise Tebay (Ballaugh) lost out 17-21 to Rebecca Teare (Marown) with Teare scoring two more doubles in the game this proved to be the difference. Another two home greeners clash in the last of the quarter finals with Sue Collier leading 10-3 against Kim Hargraves, as the latter fought back to 9-10 only for Collier to rally once more to seal a 21-12 to book her place in the semi-finals.

At the semi-final stage both were comfortable wins as Moore won 21-11 against Cooper, whilst Teare eased to a 21-9 win over Collier.

In the final Moore took the initiative early on a round peg mark to lead 16-5 against Teare. The Marown player got in and headed for the bank edge of the green, which is well known for being a big pegging mark in both directions. Teare got a run of fiver chalks together to get into double figures at 10-16.

Moore then picked up a single and double to lead 19-10, with Teare picking up another five chalks in between conceding a single to put the score at 15-20. On the following end a loose lead was punished by Moore to full effect who put her first bowl within six inches of the jack, with Teare failing to beat it this secured a 21-15 victory for Moore to win the title for a sixth successive year.

Mens Manx Masters

In the Men’s event five of the eight last 16 games were well contested with the player losing out scoring 17 or more.

Losing out at the quarter final stage were Stevie Kelly (Peel) who was well beat 11-21 by Colin Kelly (Marown), Harry Barton (Marown) reached the end of the road as he was defeated 4-21 by Jordan Cain (South Ramsey). Matthew Keggen (Marown) beat James Teare (South Ramsey) 21-17 in the closest game of the quarter finals, whilst Paul Dunn comfortably beat Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey) 21-8.

Similar to the ladies competition the victories were comfortable as Kelly trailed to Cain by a single chalk at 9-10, before going on to concede just two more chalks to seal a 21-12 win. Keggen booked his spot in his first Manx Masters final with a 21-14 victory over Dunn, with the former having led 14-7 and 18-12 this lead was enough to keep his opponent at arm’s length.

In front of a healthy crowd who had stayed for the duration, the final started under the floodlights, with Kelly taking an early lead at 7-4, with Keggen opting to come out of the corners that had served him well throughout the day. Keggen got back in and did go into the corners to level the game up at 8-8.

Kelly restored a three-chalk lead at 12-9, then built this up further on a longer mark in the opposite corners to which Keggen had been playing to lead 17-10. A single and a double from Keggen was responded to equally by Kelly to lead 20-13, with Keggen scoring a single and in the last chance saloon needing to run out, however a good first bowl from Kelly secured a 21-14 victory and the eighth time Kelly has picked up the trophy since 1994, with the competition having previously been played as the Champion of Champions which Colin won five times in the previous format.

At the end of the competition the presentation was made by South Ramsey Chairman Steve Moore, who thanked everyone who had helped with the running of the competitions. The Ladies who once again outdone themselves with the catering and the club members who assisted throughout the day. Long term supporters of the event Chris & Lynnette Perry were then introduced to present the prizes from the sponsors Felton’s Ironmongers who without their support this event would not be possible. Upon accepting the trophy Kelly stated he was delighted to have won the competition.