Meanies miss chance
With just four fixtures left apiece, the top two in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club are separated by 23 points, but second placed Mean Machine missed out on a chance to narrow that gap last weekend.
They kicked-off in a re-arranged set of games with a score of 116 against Parkers, which was close to their average, but then dropped 16 playing the second from bottom outfit, Castletown Corkers, to make it 26 in total and slipped further behind.
They now go into this Saturday’s clash with leaders Seven-Up needing to beat them comprehensively to stand any chance of retaining the title.
Hats off to Corkers, having suffered a six games to nil loss in their first outing against Parkers, they battled hard against the Meanies to win two games and remain one place off the bottom, just ahead of stablemates Castletown Cannons.
Parkers were in action both days and completed their league programme on Sunday with two disappointing results and as a consequence now occupy seventh position having got within 0.2 of fifth placed Erin Porters 24 hours earlier.
In the opener they lost out by nine points to Titans, a side just behind them in the standings, but then surprisingly were beaten by Govags who were five places back and will have to settle for a spot outside the top six.
Titans meanwhile backed up their first success, with the season’s 15th maximum win, achieved whilst playing the westerners and in turn jumped ahead of Porters by the slender advantage of two points.
As is usually the case in a three-team afternoon, the outfit taking to the green for the first time against opponents who have already played, take a little longer to get accustomed to the conditions – a situation that occurred twice this weekend as they both suffered maximum defeats.
Results for Saturday, February 13: Mean Machine 116 (5) Parkers 98 (1), Parkers 126 (6) Castletown Corkers 79 (0), Castletown Corkers 83 (2) Mean Machine 110 (4).
Results for Sunday, February 14: Parkers 103 (2) Titans 112 (4), Titans 126 (6) Govags 98 (0), Govags 118 (4) Parkers 95 (2).
Following are the merit leaders at present, with three of them having lost recently. Averages listed are from the amount of points scored, divided by the number of games played by the teams, rather than the individuals.
1, Glynn Hargraves, M.Machine (played 18)20.8; 2, Jenny Moore, M.Lakers (20) 20.5; 3, Stefan Kelly, M.Machine (18) 20.2; 4, Mike Thomas, Parkers (22) 20.1; 5, Robert Monk, M.Lakers (20) 19.9; 6, Alan Moore, M.Machine (18) 19.9; 7, Lyn Bolton, Titans (20) 19.7; 8, Adrian Skinner, M.Lakers, 20, 19.5; 9, Nigel Thomas, Seven-Up (18) 19.4; 10, Margaret Tasker, L.Angels (18) 19.1; 11, Steve Parker, M.Lakers (20) 19; 12, James Teare, M.Lakers (20) 19; 13, Rob Cowley, Parkers (22) 18.9; 14, Rosie Winckle, Bowl Rollers (20) 18.7; 15, Derek Allen, Erin Porters (20) 18.6.
These 15 include the Parkers merit winner, along with seven of the other team leaders, with the remaining four being Dougie Allan, Govags; Tom Collins, Bits n Bobs, John Alderson, Castletown Cannons and Rob Sayle just ahead of Tracy Moore for the Corkers.
The Club Championship entries are still being taken at Nobles No.3, but for anyone who wishes to compete, but will not be able to get their name down on the sheet, they can enter via email to [email protected].
Rob Cowley and Alan Moore were the doubles section winners at the midweek round robin, ahead of Derek Kneen and Stefan Kelly, with third spot going to Roy Moore and Philippa Taylor.
Winning the other section, which was played as triples, were Ken Clarke, Erwin Gelling and Margie Tasker; in second it was Bernard Thackrah, Bert Quayle and Peter Kelly, while in third it was Joy Stevens, Roma Ware and Glen Boland.