Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Finch Hill Bowling Club hosted the Association Cup on Sunday afternoon with the competition attracting 47 entries.

The weather held up until the quarter final stage only for the rain to arrive before clearing up fairly quickly. Losing out were Port St Mary’s Trevor Quayle who lost 16-21 to Marown’s Paul Dunn, Will Penhallurick (Onchan) was beaten 14-21 by Brian Kelly (Marown). Colin Kelly (Marown) ended the challenge of Nathan Hamilton (Port St Mary) with a 21-14 win, whilst Rob Monk (North Ramsey) also progressed with a 21-14 victory over Eddie Carlyle (South Ramsey).

In the semi-finals Colin Kelly put paid to the challenge of Dunn with a 21-13 win, whilst Monk booked his place in the final with his win over Brian Kelly, with the latter threatening a comeback from 13-20 down before losing out 17-21.

The final got underway with Kelly the current holder of the title having the better start as he scored two doubles in the first three ends to take a 9-6 lead. Monk recovered to win six of the next seven ends on a shorter mark over the middle of the green to take a four point lead at 14-10. Kelly responded in a similar manner as he played his favoured corners to go ahead 18-16, only for Monk to take a single thanks to a good second bowl, followed up by a double to go within touching distance of victory at 19-18. Kelly hit back scoring two points to lead 20-19. A single from Monk ensured it went to the wire at 20-20 and his lead bowl 18 inches away wasn’t beaten by Kelly and was enough for Monk to earn a hard fought 21-20 win in a good quality game.

The presentation was made by competition secretary Matthew Keggen, who thanked Finch Hill for preparing the green, the club members for providing helpers and refreshments throughout the day and the competition committee for the smooth running of the competition. Association President Phil Kelly was then introduced to present the prizes. Upon accepting the trophy Monk thanked everyone who had helped, along with his opponents, going on to say that he didn’t think he would get back to being able to win competitions having suffered back problems for a number of years, that he was quite emotional to win the trophy after a testing time. It turned out to be a very good day for the Monk family with Rob’s mother Janet also going on to win the Top Lady at Onchan.