Onchan B Stun Port St Mary A

The Rayner Shield got underway with the biggest shock of the week at Port St Mary in the preliminary round fixture between first division side Port St Mary A and second division Onchan B. The matched finished 4-4 with the four away wins coming from Bernie McPhee, who beat Wayne Roberts 21-10, Colin Spence who secured a hard fought 21-20 victory over Paul Skelly, whilst Mike Kelly beat Tom Collins 21-12, with Will Penhallurick seeing off Paul Russell 21-15. The match win was secured by just three chalks (141-144) with all the visitors reaching double figures to ensure they progressed to the next round with the home team now facing another year in the Rayner Plate.

In the first round, three teams won 8-0, with South Ramsey A seeing off Onchan C at the Park, with Jamie Clague impressing despite losing 15-21 to Peter Collister. Noble’s B were defeated by Douglas A at home, whilst Finch Hill A won at home against Ballaugh B.

There were five results which ended up 7-1, with Port Erin A beating Douglas C at Breagle Glen with Greg Brew preventing the whitewash with a fine 21-19 win over Steve Durcan. The other four wins were all away wins from first division teams all against lower league teams, with Peel B seeing off Marown D, Marown A overcame Port St Mary B with the result not reflecting how close some of the games were, with current Manx Champion Paul Dunn winning 21-17 against Andy Sykes, whilst Phil Kelly & John Gelling both won 21-20 against Derek Cain & Ken Karran respectively. Ballaugh A beat their C Team with Ray Parry recording a stunning 21-9 win over Barry McDonald, whilst Onchan A didn’t have to travel far for their win over Finch Hill B.

Elsewhere Marown C lost out 3-5 at home to Peel A, however there were a few interesting scores with Jamie Joughin beating Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly 21-14, Stephen Rundle seeing off Peter Greenlees 21-13, whilst Kevin Kelly took home the bragging rights after his 21-12 win over older brother Tom Kelly. Douglas B took a couple of games off Castletown A with Steve Gregg beating Dean Kinley 21-11, whilst Pat O’Donohue is still proving to be a tough opponent seeing off Jordan Drewett 21-18 in a 2-6 away defeat.

Noble’s A will have had their spirits lifted following their first win of the season with their visit to the sunset city resulting in a 2-6 victory over Peel C. For the away team Mark Quinn defeated Bob Berry 21-20, a result matched by Les Brookes with his win over Brian Lindsey, whilst David Pease also just made it home to the same score against Ian Pendlebury. Stephen Hampson won 21-17 against Mike Ashmole, whilst Steve Cook recorded a 21-4 win over Jeff Wilson, with Tommy Collister winning 21-11 against Paul Baker.

The first set of fixtures were rounded off on Thursday evening. It was second division Castletown B who travelled to Crosby to take on first division Marown B with the visitors securing a fantastic 3-5 win to progress to the next round. Winning for the visitors were Peter Oates, George Foy, George Peach, Ron Williams and Juan Kermode.

All teams who lost in the first round now go into the Rayner Plate, with handicaps applied based on previous years league positions.

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