Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Friday evening saw the return of a post festival invitational competition, with Marown Bowling Club hosting the event and 32 bowlers accepting the invitation to play, with the competition featuring 16 of the top local bowlers, and 16 visitors who had taken part in the Isle of Man June Bowls Festival.

The competition was put in place in memory of the late Sheila Freeman, who visited the Island for a number of years with her partner Derek Halsall who sponsored the competition.

The format was 21 up with 5 on the card for visiting bowlers and 3 on the card for home greeners, with the draw taking place earlier in the afternoon from two pots with visiting bowlers playing local players in the first round.

With a strong field taking part, it proved tough for the local bowlers, with only three of the 16 locals winning their first round games, with Jordan Cain (South Ramsey), John Kennish (South Ramsey) and home greener Colin Kelly going into the second round.

Cain won his first game 21-17 against Richie Goddard (Shropshire), John Kennish edged through 21-18 against Ryan Clark (South Yorkshire), whilst Colin Kelly made light work of Dave McDermott (Merseyside) with a 21-11 win.

Cain was knocked out in the second round with a 12-21 defeat to Billy Speed (Lancashire). With the rain well and truly set in at the quarter final stage it left Kennish and Kelly as the last locals in the competition, with the former winning 21-17 against one of the top bowlers in the game Callum Wraight (Shropshire), as the South Ramsey man started to show signs of his old form returning having not played regularly since 2018. Conor Chamberlain (Derbyshire) progressed with a 21-14 win over Speed. In the other half of the draw Kelly disposed of Josh Mordue (Yorkshire) with relative ease with a 21-12 win, whilst Joe Cranston (Yorkshire) had to work for his 21-17 win over Matt Gilmore (Merseyside) to progress to the semi-final stage.

The first semi-final saw Kennish breeze through with a 21-12 victory over Chamberlain, whilst Kelly was comfortable in his game to book his spot in the final with a 21-15 win over Cranston.

The final got underway labelled as ‘El Clasico’ by one spectator with the finalists having played each other in countless finals over the years, with both men winning most of the top titles in Manx Bowls over the past 30 years. Kelly may have been fancied to take the win with home advantage and the conditions perhaps favouring him, however Kennish rolled back the years putting in a superb performance, scoring five doubles on his way to a resounding 21-9 victory to pick up the first prize of £500, keeping the Marown man down to six singles and never allowing Kelly to win two consecutive ends.

At the conclusion of play the presentation was made by Marown club Chairman Peter Kelly and competition organiser Paul Dunn who thanked everyone had had accepted the invitation to play, the ladies for providing the refreshments, all the club members who had helped in any way, along with competition sponsor Derek Halsall who was introduced to present the prizes, as he pledged to sponsor the competition in 2024.