Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Marown Bowling Club hosted the Henry Kissack Memorial Trophy on Sunday attracting an entry of 45 with an early start to ensure the competition would be finished in time to allow everyone to watch the football.

Losing out in the quarter finals were Reg Temporaza (Onchan) who had his challenge ended by home greener Colin Kelly 19-21, whilst fellow Marown man Paul Dunn beat team mate Neil Withers 21-13. South Ramsey’s Glynn Hargraves was well beaten 10-21 by Andy Kennish (Peel), whilst Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly (Peel) beat Brian Kelly (Marown) 21-13.

The semi-finals had team mates from Peel and Marown taking each other on with Andy Kennish and Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly playing each other, with Kennish the current holder just edging home after battling back from a 6-18 deficit to win 21-20. Colin Kelly had things a bit more his own way with a 21-15 win over his captain Paul Dunn.

The final started with ten Manx Championship titles between the pair, with seven time Champion Kelly taking on three time winner Kennish. The latter got off to a flying start to go 17-7 up with 11 ends played. Kelly responded to pull the deficit back to 13-17 over the next five ends with Kelly having to strike to kill an end. Kennish got back in with a good bowl to score a single to take Kelly out of the corners and back on his favoured length. Two singles took Kennish to 20-13. Kelly fought back again with three doubles and a single to make the score 20-20. On what everyone thought was the last end Kelly killed the end once again to save the game. Kelly played a good lead only for Kennish to pull out another great bowl to see the game out to take a deserved win to retain the trophy and win it for a fifth time overall with a 21-20 victory.

The presentation was made by Neil Withers who thanked the Marown members for assisting throughout the day, the team in the kitchen for the refreshments and the green keepers for the preparing the green.