Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

South Ramsey’s John Kennish retained the Manx Championship at Noble’s on Sunday, and in doing so won his 10th title. Kennish has now won five more Manx Championships than his nearest rival, and continued to re-write the history books.

Losing out at the quarter-final stage were David Kelly (Peel), Jordan Cain (Onchan), Colin Kelly (Marown), and Neil Withers (Marown).

Kennish played teammate and double champion Glynn Hargraves in the semi-final, it was a close game throughout, with Hargraves lying two at 15-14 down, Kennish pulled out a great bowl to win the end and pull away from his opponent to book his place in the final with a 21-15 win.
In the other semi-final Pete Slinger (Onchan) faced teammate and two time champion Kevin Quirk. Slinger built up a 17-10 lead, Quirk then managed to close the gap on his opponent, before Slinger got back in, to get over the line 21-17.

The final started with Kennish leading well to take a commanding lead to go 15-4 up, before Slinger got back in. Slinger headed for the corners, in doing so pulled the score back to 15-10 down. At this point Kennish won the jack back, playing a very short mark, which Slinger called as being suspect for the minimum 19 metres required, this gave him the jack on three separate occasions throughout the final. This didn’t stop Kennish from kicking back into gear, to see the game out, winning 21-10. Slinger can be proud of reaching his first final, and his efforts over the course of the weekend.

Another piece of history was made with the presentation being made by the First Lady President of the Men’s Association Clare Cooper, who thanked Noble’s for the catering and club members for their assistance over the weekend, whilst a special mention was given to the standard of play, also to the juniors who had taken part in the Championship, and are the future of the game.