Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

On Wednesday of last week the semi-finals and Final of the Tower Insurance Cup were held on Nobles Park No. 1 Green after having been postponed the previous day due to heavy rain. In the semi-finals North Ramsey A were drawn against Castletown A and Onchan A were drawn against Douglas A.

North Ramsey A started well against Castletown A with Mike Skelly beating Mike Hargraves 21-20, Brian Colquitt beating Peter Oates 21-6 and Ray Skelly making it three in a row as he beat Ron Williams 21-18. Willie Corkill then got the first win for the Castletown side as he beat Geoff Porter 21-15 but then North Ramsey A Captain Steve Parker beat Castletown A Captain George Foy 21-19. Jimmy Moffatt then increased the lead for North Ramsey as he beat Colin Holland 21-14 and his team mate John Cannan beat Mark Saunders 21-19. In the final game of this semi-final Dave Hollingworth pulled one back for Castletown as he beat Tony Smart 21-19 which meant that North Ramsey A booked themselves a place in the final with a 6-2 win.

In the other semi-final Onchan A drew first blood with Mike Kelly beating Pat O’Donohue 21-17 but then Willie Cowley beat Onchan’s Derek Allen 21-20 before Onchan A won the next two games with Phil Kerruish beating Kevin Firth 21-11 and Kevin Quirk beating Keith Rise to the same score. The second half of the game started better for Douglas A with Jimmy Sansom beating Sid McKnight 21-8 and Steve Cook beating Neil Dunwell 21-16. Colin Spence then got a fourth win for Onchan as he beat Tommy Collister 21-18 before Shaun Seal then levelled the match to four games each by beating Mark Kelly 21-6. As this meant that the match was level on games it was Douglas A that got through to the final by scoring 141 chalks to Onchan’s 134.

So to the Final and Willie Cowley gave the Douglas A side a good start by beating Mike Skelly 21-11 but then for North Ramsey A Brian Colquitt beat Keith Rise 21-13 and Ray Skelly beat Pat O’Donohue 21-19 before Jimmy Moffatt beat Shaun Seal 21-15 to make it 3-1 to the Northerners at the halfway stage. The North Ramsey team continued to show good form with Steve Parker beating Jimmy Sansom 21-17 and John Cannan beating Tommy Collister 21-18. The next two games saw wins for Douglas A with Geoff Porter losing 15-21 to Kevin Firth and Gary Merrill also losing 15-21 to Steve Cook. 

This meant that North Ramsey A won the Final 5-3 with the trophies being presented by Mark Kelly the Competition Secretary of the Isle of Man Men’s Over 60’s Bowling League. In his Captain’s speech Steve Parker thanked Nobles Bowling Club for hosting the competition and the sponsors Tower Insurance. He also thanked Andy Kennish, Mark Kelly and Norman Kneen for their work and Terry Bates and Brian Kelly for acting as Referees.