Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

Marown Bowling Club hosted the Henry Kissack Memorial Trophy on Sunday attracting an entry of 44, which was one fewer than last year with a notable absentee with the holder from the last two years – Andy Kennish missing out on the opportunity to defend the title once again. The handicap and scoring system was a throw-back to the 1980’s/90’s with games played 15-up instead of the usual 21-up.

Losing out in the quarter finals were Tom Kelly (Peel) who had his challenge ended by Onchan man Bernie McPhee 14-15, with Kelly not able to get the last point needed after being 14-10 up, whilst Neil Withers got the better of new Marown team mate Peter Jones 15-6. Another home greener reached the semi-final courtesy of a hard fought 15-12 win over South Ramsey’s Glynn Hargraves, with Phil Kelly defeating his captain Paul Dunn, with the latter also holding a 14-10 lead and failing to secure the last chalk needed only to lose out 15-14.

The semi-finals had Colin Kelly lose out 9-15 to teammate Phil Kelly, while Withers had it all his own way as he managed to end the challenge of McPhee with a 15-6 to book his place in the final.

The final started with both players former Manx Champions, with Withers (-4) who won on his own green in 2009, while Kelly (-2) won the title in 1994 on Noble’s, with the latter managing to hold on to and extend his advantage to lead 7-0 after eight ends. A mini-revival from Withers pulled the deficit back to just one chalk at 7-8 only for Kelly to score a single, followed by a double before conceding a single to then finish strongly with two doubles to take a deserved 15-8 victory to put the gloss on a fine day as he rolled back the years to get over the line against three of his teammates from the quarter final stage onwards to ensure he won the trophy for a third time following on from his previous successes in 1996 and 2000.

The presentation was made by Brian Kelly, who thanked the Marown members for assisting throughout the day, the team in the kitchen for the refreshments and the green keepers for the preparing the green.